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Show 68 ZOOLOGY OF TilE VOYAGE OF TilE BEAGLE. the east island, from which, also, those described by the French naturalists came, and likewise that given in the Appendix to Dixon's Voyage. I have no doubt that it is peculiar to this group, for the foregoing species, which in the neighbouring mainland of Tierra del Fuego supplies its ~lace ~nd has .Pr.ecisely the same habits, has been examined by Mr. Gould and Is constdered dtstmct. The 0. antw ·cticus has long been noticed Ly voyagers to the Falkland Islands from its extreme tameness: in the year 1763 Pernety states it was so tame that it would almost perch on his finger, and that in half an hour he killed ten with a wand. 4. 0PETIORHYNCHUS NIGROFUMosus. G. R. Gmy. · PLATE XX. Uppucerthia nigrofumosa, ])'Orb. et Lafr. Mag. Je Zoul. 1838, p. 23. Opetiorbynchus lanccolatus, Gould, MS. and on plate XX. My specimen was killed at Coquimbo, on the coast of Chile. It differs from 0. Patagonictts in its larger size, much stronger feet and bill, and more dusky plumage, and in the white streak over the eye being less plainly marked. In this species the red band, which extends from the body obliquely across the wings in all the species, reaches to the third primary, whereas in 0. Patagonicus, 0. vulgaris, and 0. antm·cticus, that feather is not marked, or so faintly, as scarcely to be distinguishable. In the genus Furnarius, the wing feathers are marked in an analogous manner. I saw this species (as I believe) on the coast near the mouth of the valley of Copiap6. I will now make a few remarks on the habits of these three coast species. The first, 0. antarcticus, is confined, as I have every reason to believe, to the Falkland Islands. The second inhabits Tierra del Fuego, and in Chiloe and Central Chile is replaced. by the local variety with a long beak, and this still further northward by the 0. nigrofumosus. On the east side of the continent I do not believe these marine species extend so far northward. I never saw one on the shores of the Plata, but they occur in Central Patagonia. These birds live almost exclusively on the sea beach, whether formed of shingle or rock, and feed just above the surf on the matter thrown up by the waves. The pebbly beds of large rivers sometimes tempt a solitary pair to wander far from the coast. Thus at Santa Cruz I saw one at least one hundred miles inland and I several times observed the same thing in Chile, which has likewise been ~·emarked by Kittlitz, who has given a very faithful account of the habits of 0. Patagonicus. I must ad~ that I also saw this bird. in the stony and arid valleys in the Cordillera, at a hetght of at least 8000 feet. In Tierra del Fnego I scarcely ever saw one twenty yards from the beach, and both there and at the Falkland Islands they may fre- |