Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/15

Rh the "barking bird," a thrush-like ground bird whose sharp notes suggest the presence of a small dog. The condor and buzzard were frequently seen.

One of the most interesting of the birds is the quail-like Attagis, a species of the Limicolæ inhabiting the open uplands. Darwin refers to their rising and flying like grouse and says they occupy the place of ptarmigan of the northern hemisphere.

The most familiar bird of the straits is a species of creeper which follows the hunter constantly through the forest. The Cape Horn wren is as saucy as a wren can be, and the marsh wren creeping through the grass like a mouse, is almost familiar enough to be caught with a butterfly net.

Of the hundred or more species of birds to be found along the straits we obtained about seventy, three of which belonging to the family of "wood-hewers" were new to science. Our bird collection numbered one hundred and seventy specimens in all. The variety of migratory birds was greater than we had expected, but South America has a wonderfully varied bird fauna, and why should not the migrants fly southward in springtime if summer is to be found in that direction? One has but to get used to a reversal of the seasons.

The natives had skins of puma, guanaco, deer and Patagonian ostrich, but none of these were observed alive, as our shore trips did not permit of extended journeys inland. The Magellan fox, otter and little striped skunk were easily obtained, the last going whole into a tank of alcohol sent ashore for the purpose, no one being sufficiently self-sacrificing to skin it. We could only hope that the alcohol would have a deodorizing effect, but I never had the courage to inquire of the curator of mammals of the Smithsonian Institution respecting an alcoholic specimen of Mephitis patagonica from the Straits of Magellan.

The inquisitive fox watched us everywhere from the bluffs, but the crab-eating otter quickly slid from the rocks into the tangles of giant kelp so abundant along the shores of this region.

From Punta Arenas a two days' journey was made in the steam launch to the Fuegian side in search of Antarctic fur seals. We met with these animals about thirty-five miles south of Punta Arenas, at St. Peter and St. Paul Rocks, where a number were lying on the rocks near the water. By landing on the opposite side the captain and I managed to stalk them, killing three with our Winchesters before they could take to the sea. After the seals had been skinned for museum specimens, the carcasses were eagerly appropriated by a canoe load of hungry and more than half-naked Fuegians. While the men were stowing their wind-fall of fresh meat in the canoe, one of the women went foraging among the nests of some cormorants near by, taking all