296 TACHYERES CINEREUS 



they are deserted by the old birds. Indeed, Vallentin (1904) says that on the Falk- 

 lands he has often watched the male driving the young away with strokes of the 

 wings, sometimes by flying at them and sometimes by diving. Abbott (1861) also 

 speaks of the male defending the territory from intruders. It is said that when once 

 disowned by the parents the young bunch together, companies of from fifty to a 

 thousand having been seen (Vallentin, 1904). 



I think it is worth while to quote the following remarkable experience which William 

 Percy had with a family of Steamer Ducks, for it shows that they are endowed with 

 a very different psychological make-up from that seen among our more typical 

 northern ducks. He writes: 



"On Jan. 2, 1924, I was sitting on a small island in the Guaytecas group when a 

 pair of Steamer Ducks with a brood of six came swimming amongst the kelp within 

 40 yards. They fed there for one half hour gradually getting to within 25 yards of 

 where I lay. The young were not more than a week old and as I required a bird at 

 that stage I finally decided to shoot one. Choosing the moment when one bird was 

 separated from the rest I fired and killed it, turning it over in the water so that it lay 

 on its back. The rest of the brood immediately took refuge at their mother's side 

 and she and the male remained perfectly still where they were. I did not move and 

 was then vouchsafed the most remarkable display of emotion that I have ever wit- 

 nessed in a duck. The male remained gazing at the splash made by the shot for per- 

 haps three seconds, then gave a harsh cry at which the remaining young dived at 

 once. Then 'steaming' straight at the dead bird with beak wide open, and lashing 

 the water into foam with wings and feet, he appeared on reaching it to be about to 

 give it a violent blow with his bill, but instead dived under when within six inches of 

 the dead body, reappeared a few yards beyond, 'steamed' on 15 yards, and then 

 turned about and repeated the process. He must have repeated this performance 15 

 or 20 times before I was tempted to end his pathetic frenzy by shooting him, when he 

 suddenly stopped, joined the female who had remained quite stationary with her 

 brood at her side all the time, and went slowly off to sea apparently quite uncon- 

 cerned. I had not moved, and do not think the birds had seen me at all. It seemed 

 as though the male, on seeing the splash made by the shot, and his dead offspring in 

 the middle of it, had concluded that something under water had done the damage, 

 and I am now convinced that the rest of the performance was an attack on a sup- 

 posed submarine enemy. In any case it was a most impressive spectacle which dis- 

 played as no other experience with these birds did, the astounding power which they 

 can exert in the water, the surface of which was made to foam and boil as if a large 

 fish was causing the disturbance." 



Status. When the first travelers came to the Straits of Magellan the Steamer 

 Duck was very abundant. It has probably diminished very little since that time, for 



