18 ZOOLOGY OF THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE. 



gregarious ; they do not soar, and their flight is heavy and clumsy. On the ground 

 they run with extreme quickness, putting out one leg before the other, and 

 stretching forward their bodies, very much like pheasants. The sealers, who 

 have sometimes, when pressed by hunger, eaten them, say that the flesh when 

 cooked is quite white, like that of a fowl, and very good to eat — a fact which I, 

 as well as some others of a party from the Beagle, who, owing to a gale of 

 wind, were left on shore in northern Patagonia, until we were very hungry, can 

 answer for, is far from being the case with the flesh of the Carrancha, or 

 Polyborus JBrasiliensis. It is a strange anomaly that any of the Falconidts should 

 possess such perfect powers of running as is the case with this bird, and likewise 

 with the Phalcobcenns montanus of D'Orbigny. It perhaps, indicates an obscure 

 relationship with the Gallinaceous order — a relation which M. D'Orbigny suggests 

 is still more plainly shown in the Secretary Bird, which he believes represents in 

 Southern Africa, the Polyborince of America. 



The M. leucurus is a noisy bird, and utters several harsh cries ; of which, 

 one is so like that of the English rook, that the sealers always call it by this 

 name. It is a curious circumstance, as shewing how, in allied species, small 

 details of habit accompany similar structure, that these hawks throw their 

 heads upwards and backwards, in the same strange manner, as the Carranchas 

 (the Tharu of Molina) have been described to do. The M. leucurus, builds on 

 the rocky cliffs of the sea-coast, but (as I was informed) only on the small 

 outlying islets, and never on the two main islands : this is an odd precaution 

 for so fearless a bird. 



4. MlLVAGO ALBOGULARIS. 

 Plate I. 

 Polyborus, (Phalcobaenus) albogularis, Gould, Proceedings of Zoolog. Soc. Part V. (Jan. 1837.) p. 9. 

 M. Fcem. fuscescenti - niger, marginibus plumarum inter scapulas fulvis ; 

 primariis secundariisque albo ad apicem notatis ; gula, pectore, corporeque subtus 

 albis ; lateribus fusco sparsis ; rostro livido, lineis nigris ornato ; cera tarsis- 

 que Jlavis. 



Long. tot. 20 una |; rostri, If ; alse, 15f ; caucbe, 9; tarsi, 3. 



Description of female specimen, believed to be applicable to both sexes. 

 Colour.— Head, back, upper wing coverts pitch hlack, passing into liver 

 brown ; feathers on back of neck and shoulders terminating in a yellowish- 

 brown tip, of which tint the external portion of the primaries, and nearly 

 the whole of the tertiaries partake. Tail liver brown, with a terminal white 

 band nearly one inch broad ; base of the tectrices white, irregularly 

 marked with brown : upper tail coverts white. All the feathers of the wing 



