6 7 
Jackass Penguin’s, in the grass, diddle-dee, or furze, in a tussac 
bush on the side of a cliff, or some distance inland. The parents 
have an anxious time protecting the little ones from Sea Hens 
(page 57) or Gulls (pages 38*40). Large numbers of the immature 
birds, and those that have no mates, congregate on grassy flats, 
when they are not in the water feeding. The eggs are used for 
eating, but must be very fresh to be palatable, and are better fried 
than boiled. 
Red-backed Buzzard ( Buteo erythronotus). Page 22. 
Generally known as the Blue Hawk because of its blue-grey 
wings, this bird is not very numerous in the Falklands. The female 
is larger than the male, and is distinguished by her red-brown bad:. 
They build nests of sticks, from the diddle-dee and fachina bushes, 
lined with grass, in quite inaccessible places as a rule. The one 
photographed was on the side of a cliff overlooking a salt-water 
creek. The eggs are whitish with red-brown markings. 
Turkey Buzzard (Cathartes falklandicus). Page 23. The Tur- 
key Buzzard is fairly common, and on some sheep farms is considered 
so destructive that war is waged on him and all his family. As a 
scavenger he is useful, feeding on any kind of refuse, dead birds and 
animals. Turkey Buzzards are rather repulsivedooking creatures at 
close quarters with their bald red heads and necks, but when soaring 
aloft over their prey they are fascinating to watch. They nest in 
September, as a rule, laying two eggs, white with red markings, 
which markings vary very much. The nests are in holes on tussac 
islands, or under projecting tussac bogs, or sometimes they are on 
the level of the beach under overhanging rocks. After the breeding 
season they frequently* gather in colonies, twenty or thirty together. 
When wounded they offer no resistance as a hawk would do, but try 
to get away into some hiding place. 
White-bellied Shag or King Shag ( Phalucrocorax albi - 
venter). Pages 24-28. These birds take a long time to get their 
nests in order, as petty theft is one of their failings, and with 
running about, snatching little bits of building material from each 
other and incessant conversation, many hours are wasted. “ To 
make a noise like that of a shag rookery ” is a proverbial saying in 
the Falklands. On page 27 incomplete nests are shown. These 
are built up with mud and dirt, lined with seaweeds, and are all right 
for the three bluish-white eggs which are usually laid in November, 
but they are lamentably small when the three eggs have been hatched 
and the young ones grown to the size shown on page 24. Worse still 
are they when five or six of these youngsters lose their heads and 
make a rush for one nest (page 25), the nest in question being already 
occupied by an old bird. The rookeries are generally on flat ledges 
of rock below the cliffs, or on sloping or flat spaces along the top of 
a cliff, and are sometimes co-tenanted by Rocky Penguins. 
Rock or Black Shag ( PJialacrocorax inagellanicus). Pages 
29-32. This is a smaller bird than the King Snag, and has a black 
throat in the normal adult plumage, as on page 29, though some 
have slight traces of white on the throat, as on pages 30 and 31. It 
nests on ledges along the side> of cliffs and gulches, not on flat open 
jpaces like the King Shag. These nests are often quite picturesque 
