Jan. 1835. 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



353 



tioned in Tierra del Fuego^ under the title of a black wren 

 [Scytalopus fuscus of Gould), appears, in its skulking 

 habits, odd cries, and place of resort, and likewise in some 

 points of structure, to be closely related to this singular 

 genus. 



On the coast,* a small dusky-coloured bird (a Furnarius 

 allied to fuliginosiis) is very common. It is remarkable from 

 its quiet and very tame habits. It lives entirely on the sea- 

 beach, and there (as well as sometimes on the floating kelp), 

 picks up small sea-shells and crabs ; thus supplying the place 

 of a sandpiper. Besides these birds, only a few others in- 

 habit this broken land. In my rough notes I describe the 

 strange noises, which although frequently heard within these 

 gloomy forests, yet scarcely disturb the general silence. 

 The yelping of the guid-guid, and the sudden whew- whew of 

 the cheucau, sometimes come from afar, and sometimes from 

 close at hand ; — the little wren occasionally adds its cry ; — 

 the creeper follows the intruder, screaming and twittering ; — 

 the humming-bird may be seen every now and then darting 

 from side to side, and emitting, like an insect, its shrill chirp ; 

 — lastly, from the top of some lofty tree, the indistinct but 

 plaintive note of the white-tufted tyrant flycatcher may be 

 noticed. 



From the great preponderance in most countries of certain 

 kinds of birds, such as the finches, one feels at first surprised 

 at meeting with such peculiar forms, above enumerated, as 

 the commonest birds in any district. In central Chile tvv^o 

 of them, namely the Sj/nai/aiis and Scytalopus, occur, al- 

 though most rarely. When finding, as in this case, any animal 

 which seems to play so insignificant a part in the great 

 scheme of nature, one is apt to wonder why a distinct species 



* I may mention as a proof of how great a difference there is between 

 the seasons of the wooded and th_e open parts of the coast, that on Septem- 

 ber 20th, in lat. 34"^, these birds had young ones in the nest, while among 

 the Chonos Islands, three months later in the summer, they were only lay- 

 ing ; the difference in latitude between these two places being about 700 

 miles. 



VOL. III. 2 A 



