364 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



lingering blossoms remaining on the fuchsias and Escal- 

 lonias, but the scarlet Loranthus was still in full bloom, and 

 brightened up the dense thickets. 



The morning of the 23d was fair, and the horizon beyond 

 the bay remarkably clear ; the distant Cordillera rising hard and 

 sharp against the sky, its peaks showing black like the teeth of 

 a saw. Two of the officers and I landed early, with the inten- 

 tion of spending the day on shore, and walked for some miles 

 along the beach in the direction of the head of the harbour. 

 In the water we saw several specimens of a large grebe, ap- 

 parently the same with one observed at the river Gallegos 

 and at the eastern entrance of the Strait ; and on the rocks a 

 pretty little gray bird, with a white line on each side of the 

 head, the Cinclodes Patagonicus, very common in the Strait 

 and Channels, was hopping about, approaching very close to 

 us at times. This little creature has the curious habit of 

 lighting on the floating masses of kelp not far from the shore, 

 and searching the fronds for its food, which consists principally 

 of marine animals. On the west coast of South America it 

 extends, at least, as far north as Valparaiso. A second species 

 of the genus obtained in the Strait, where however it does 

 not appear to be nearly so common as the former, was the 

 Cinclodes fuscus. Heavy rain came on about noon, and as it 

 showed no symptoms of abating, we retraced our steps to the 

 landing-place, and got on board about three p.m. It rained 

 and blew hard during the night ; and though it was calm on 

 the morning of the 24th, the deluge continued as great as 

 ever, and the wind again got up later in the day, and all that 

 night it blew and rained. The rain continued unabated 

 during the whole of the 25th and 26th, coming down with a 

 roaring sound, and such vehemence that five minutes' experi- 

 ence of it would have been sufficient to drench one to the skin. 



