THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 401 



ear, and resembling that bird in its movements, being specially 

 abundant, and we found a dead specimen of TinocJwrus rumi- 

 civorus, which had apparently been killed by a hawk. A 

 single individual of the Painted Lady butterfly {Cynthia 

 Cardui), which we had already seen at Eio Janeiro, Monte 

 Video, Lota, and Valparaiso, was captured, but very few 

 insects occurred to us. I spent some time examining, with 

 much interest, the beds of fossil shells, forming regular terraces, 

 which extend for several miles inland, attaining an elevation 

 of 250 feet, of which Mr. Darwin has given an account, and 

 obtained numerous representatives of the genera Oliva, Chorus, 

 Monoceros, Concholepas, Turritella, Fissurella, Calyjptrcea, 

 Ostrea, Pecten, Area, etc., most of them, apparently, belonging 

 to existing species, as well as a portion of the pincer-claw of 

 a large crab, several sharks' teeth, and many fragments of the 

 bones of Cetacea. Some of these were found scattered on the 

 surface of the rising grounds, and others were imbedded in a 

 soft sandy rock, some good sections of which were displayed 

 on the line of railway. A much older bed, which I subse- 

 quently observed, occurs a little above high-water mark, at 

 the foot of a steep bank about fifty feet in height, at one end 

 of the town of Coquimbo, and appears to be exclusively com- 

 posed of large and massive oysters in a matrix of hard sand- 

 stone. The cardinal area of one of these shells, which I dug 

 out on a later occasion, measured between five and six inches 

 in depth. On leaving the shell-terraces, we descended to the 

 sandy beach of the bay, where I picked up a few specimens 

 of marine animals, including a live example of the Oli'va 

 Peruviana, which, on being handled, emitted a yellow fluid, 

 which, on exposure to the air for a short time, changed to a 

 rich purple hue; and a single individual of the Hippa 

 talpoides, taken previously at Chiloe and in the Bay of San 



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