THE STEAIT OF MAGELLAN. 297 



there were numbers, flew about us, uttering their harsh, scold- 

 ing cries, and several times, when walking by myself, they 

 swooped at me in such a menacing manner that I was obliged 

 to make them keep their distance by striking at them with 

 my stick. The common brown duck of the Strait swam in 

 flocks close to the beach, and the kelp geese (Chloephaga 

 antardica) were almost equally bold. The upland geese 

 {Chloephaga Magellanica) were plentiful, and allowed the 

 sportsmen to approach within a few yards of them without 

 taking alarm, and a pair which I disturbed in one spot ran 

 along in front of me without taking the trouble to fly off. I 

 observed several specimens of a large owl, and two species 

 of hawks, one a dark-coloured bird, which I had not seen in 

 the Strait, the other coloured much like a kestril, but about 

 twice the size of that bird. One of the latter flew about so 

 close to me that I threw my stick at it once or twice, and on 

 one of these occasions it coolly lighted on the missile as it 

 fell to the ground. I have already, I think, remarked on the 

 much greater tameness of certain species of birds at the Falk- 

 land Islands, as compared with the same kinds in the Strait, 

 a circumstance which, perhaps, may be partially accounted 

 for by the greater scarcity of foxes in the former locality. 



On the afternoon of this day great numbers of the smaller 

 Litliodes of the Strait {L. verrucosa) were taken by the men, 

 and I found that at least nine-tenths of them were males. A 

 few specimens of another Crustacean, for long known as an 

 inhabitant of the Falkland Islands, the Euryjpodius Zatreillii, 

 were also obtained. Three other species of the same genus — 

 the B. septentrionalis, E. hrevipes, and E. Audouinii — were 

 procured by me in various localities in the Strait of Magellan 

 and western coast of Patagonia ; and it would not require a 

 naturalist to be deeply imbued with Darwinism to believe 



