252 
TIERRA DEL FUEGO 
CHAP. 
channel,—while the other is exclusively bordered by old crystal¬ 
line rocks; in the former, called Navarin Island, both foxes 
and guanacos occur ; but in the latter, Hoste Island, although 
similar in every respect, and only separated by a channel 
a little more than half a mile wide, I have the word of 
Jemmy Button for saying that neither of these animals is 
found. 
The gloomy woods are inhabited by few birds : occasionally 
the plaintive note of a white-tufted tyrant-flycatcher (Myiobius 
albiceps) may be heard, concealed near the summit of the most 
lofty trees ; and more rarely the loud strange cry of a black 
woodpecker, with a fine scarlet crest on its head. A little, 
dusky-coloured wren (Scytalopus Magellanicus) hops in a 
skulking manner among the entangled mass of the fallen and 
decaying trunks. But the creeper (Oxyurus tupinieri) is the 
commonest bird in the country. Throughout the beech forests, 
high up and low down, in the most gloomy, wet, and impene¬ 
trable ravines, it may be met with. This little bird no doubt 
appears more numerous than it really is, from its habit of 
following with seeming curiosity any person who enters these 
silent woods : continually uttering a harsh twitter, it flutters 
from tree to tree, within a few feet of the intruder’s face. It 
is far from wishing for the modest concealment of the true 
creeper (Certhia familiaris) ; nor does it, like that bird, run up 
the trunks of trees, but 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° 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 char¬ 
acter of Patagonia; but within the damp and cold limit of Tierra 
del Fuego not one occurs. That the climate would not have 
