254 



CHARLES DARWIN 



industriously, after the manner of a willow-wren, hops about, 

 and searches for insects on every twig and branch. In the 

 more open parts, three or four species of finches, a thrush, 

 a starling (or Icterus), two Opetiorhynchi, and several hawks 

 and owls occur. 



The absence of any species whatever in the whole class of 

 Reptiles, is a marked feature in the zoology of this country, 

 as well as in that of the Falkland Islands. I do not ground 

 this statement merely on my own observation, but I heard it 

 from the Spanish inhabitants of the latter place, and from 

 Jemmy Button with regard to Tierra del Fuego. On the 

 banks of the Santa Cruz, in 50 0 south, I saw a frog; and it 

 is not improbable that these animals, as well as lizards, may 

 be found as far south as the Strait of Magellan, where the 

 country retains the character of Patagonia; but within the 

 damp and cold limit of Tierra del Fuego not one occurs. 

 That the climate would not have suited some of the orders, 

 such as lizards, might have been foreseen; but with respect 

 to frogs, this was not so obvious. 



Beetles occur in very small numbers: it was long before I 

 could believe that a country as large as Scotland, covered 

 with vegetable productions and with a variety of stations, 

 could be so unproductive. The few which I found were 

 alpine species (Harpalidse and Heteromidse) living under 

 stones. The vegetable-feeding Chrysornelida;, so eminently 

 characteristic of the Tropics, are here almost entirely ab- 

 sent; 5 I saw very few flies, butterflies, or bees, and no crick- 

 ets or Orthoptera. In the pools of water I found but a few 

 aquatic beetles, and not any fresh-water shells : Succinea at 

 first appears an exception ; but here it must be called a terres- 

 trial shell, for it lives on the damp herbage far from the. 

 water. Land-shells could be procured only in the same alpine 

 situations with the beetles. I have already contrasted the 

 climate as well as the general appearance of Tierra del! 



6 I believe I must except one alpine Haltica, and a single specimen of * 

 Melasoma.. Mr. Waterhouse informs me, that of the Harpaliche there ar^ 

 eight or nine species— the forms of the greater number being very peculiar 

 of Heteromera, four or five species; of Rhyncophora, six or seven; aiA 

 ot the following families one species in each: Staphylinidse, Elateride, 

 Cebriomdae, Melolonthidae. The species in the other orders are even fewer 

 Jn all the orders, the scarcity of the individuals is even more remark- 

 able than that of the species. Most of the Coleoptera have been carefully 

 described by Mr. Waterhouse m the Annals of Nat. Hist. 



