264 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



woods behind and on either side of the settlement were look- 

 ing extremely pretty, the foliage of the Antarctic beech being 

 in its first freshness. On the low sandy ground close to the 

 beach the little Berheris empetrifolia covered many spots 

 with its prostrate stems, thickly laden with yellow blossoms, 

 which diffused a pleasant, faint perfume ; and a number of 

 other plants were in full flower, some noticed on our first 

 arrival in the preceding year, and others which, owing to the 

 more advanced state of the season at that time, had then 

 passed out of bloom. Among the latter was the beautiful 

 Magellanic variety of our British Primula farinosa, at one 

 time regarded as a distinct form on account of its white 

 flowers, but, as I found on this occasion, occurring in equal 

 abundance with purple ones, and a Saxifrage (S. exarata), 

 resembling ^S'. tridactylites in general aspect. Other plants 

 found profusely in flower were the Magellanic currant, a 

 shrubby Composite of the genus Baccharis, a yellow Banun- 

 culus, and the Anemone decapetala.^ A number of birds were 

 observed on this occasion, including the Turdus FalMandicus, 

 which sang most sweetly during occasional showers, Anceretes 

 paruluSy the Bandurria, and numerous oyster-catchers, gulls, 

 cormorants, and steamer-ducks. 



Next day I walked for some distance over the " Bandurria 

 Plains," finding, among other objects, a nest of Centrites niger, 

 containing several white eggs, marked with purplish-brown 

 spots, and some good flowering specimens of Oxalis ennea- 



* One rather curious plant that I have omitted to mention as extremely- 

 common about the settlement, and which exists in more or less abimdance 

 throughout the wooded country of the Strait, as well as at the Falkland 

 Islands, is the Gunnera (Misandra) Magellanica, a dioecious apetalous herb, 

 with creeping stems, orbicular-reniform leaves, supported on rather long 

 petioles, and small round scarlet fruits, about the size of a sweet pea, closely- 

 agglomerated together into a sort of spike. 



