THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 133 



feet on a level space of ground at the same time, our experi- 

 ence in this respect being occasionally varied by suddenly 

 sinking over the ankles in a burrow. This troublesome little 

 engineer was the Ctenomys Magellanicics, a species closely 

 allied to the burrowing rodent to which I have at an earlier 

 period referred, as common in the neighbourhood of Mal- 

 donado. It is very abundant in the open country on the 

 coast of both sides of the Strait, but, so far as my experience 

 goes, does not penetrate far inland. Like the northern 

 species, it emits a most peculiar cry while in its burrow, and 

 it is much more frequently to be heard than seen, as it is very 

 cautious on the approach of danger. Captain King appears 

 to have been the first to procure specimens of it, and these 

 were taken at Cape Gregory ; but the occurrence of the 

 species in the Strait was noticed more than a century before 

 his time, by Wood, who remarks, that at the "first Narrow, 

 the place for the space of five or six Miles, is full of Eats, that 

 have holes in the Earth like Coney-Boroughs, and are supposed 

 to feed on Limpids." 



In the course of our expedition we observed a few snipe 

 and many large carrion-feeding hawks. These birds, the 

 carranchas {Polyhorus Tharus), are extremely common on the 

 grassy plains, and their vulturine habits, as Mr. Darwin has 

 observed, " are very evident to any one who has fallen asleep 

 on the desolate plains of Patagonia ; for when he wakes, he 

 will see, on each surrounding hillock, one of these birds pati- 

 ently watching him with an evil eye." When thus perched, 

 they assume a very erect posture, and I have frequently mis- 

 taken one in the distance for a human creature. The plum- 

 age is handsome, but the naked skin over the crop, which 

 protrudes after a meal, communicates an unpleasant aspect to 

 them, and they are exceedingly disagreeable to skin, as they 



