THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 365 



It was fair, however, on the morning of the 27th, and Captain 

 Mayne, Dr. Campbell, and I, went over to Ancud, where some 

 of the oJ6[icers were being photographed in surveying costume, 

 for the edification of their friends at home. After a walk into 

 the country beyond the town, we re-embarked early in the 

 afternoon, and returned to the ship. Later in the day a few 

 of us spent some time on shore, and one of the officers suc- 

 ceeded in shooting a male and female scissor-bill {Rhynchops 

 melanura) On the morning of the 28th we weighed, and left 

 the bay of San Carlos on our northerly voyage, but soon en- 

 countered the wind right in our teeth, with a very heavy swell, 

 and therefore altered course and returned to our anchorage, 

 reaching it some time after noon. It rained very heavily 

 throughout the remainder of the day, and throughout nearly 

 the whole of the 29th — a N.W. gale blowing at the same time, 

 accompanied with a display of very vivid lightning and loud 

 peals of thunder. The 30th was fair, though still blowing 

 pretty hard. In the forenoon a large flock of very beautiful 

 cormorants {Phalacrocorax Gaimardi), with bluish-gray and 

 white plumage, yellow biUs, and scarlet legs, lighted on the 

 water not far from the ship, but we were unable to procure 

 any. One of the officers recognised them as specimens 

 of a species of which he had seen two examples on one occa- 

 sion on the Messier Channel, but there they must be very 

 rare, as I never saw any to the south of Chiloe. In the 

 afternoon Dr. Campbell and I landed, and obtained by means 

 of his skill specimens of several small birds, including the 

 lesser woodpecker of the Strait (Ficus ligniarucs), some 

 thrushes, and two individuals of the " Eara " {Phytotoma rara), 

 regarding whose affinities a considerable amount of difference 

 of opinion has prevailed among ornithologists. Molina was, 

 I believe, the first to describe this curious bird, which, in 



