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 Falconidce should 
possess such perfect powers of running as is the case with this bird, and likewise 
with the Phalcobcenus 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. Milvago albogularis. 
Plate I. 
Polyborus, (Phalcobsenus) 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 ; guld, pectore, corporeque subtiis 
alb is ; lateribus fusco spar sis ; rostro livido, lineis nigris ornato ; cera tar sis - 
que Jlavis. 
Long. tot. 20 unc. J ; rostri, 1 § ; alse, 15f ; caudse, 9 ; tarsi, 3. 
Description of female specimen, believed to be applicable to both sexes. 
Colour. — Head, back, upper wing coverts pitch black, 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 
