Page:The birds of Tierra del Fuego - Richard Crawshay.djvu/233

Rh undisturbed in the water they swim quietly along, producing two peculiar notes—that of the male being a sort of mew rapidly repeated, while that of the female is a kind of deep growl—and diligently searching the fronds of the kelp for the animals to be found thereon, or diving for mussels, which appear to be one of their staple articles of diet, as I always found fragments of the shells in the stomachs of those I examined. The stomach is a most powerful organ, with very thick muscular coats, and the lower part of the windpipe or trachea of the male possesses an enlargement of considerable size. When alarmed at the prospect of impending danger, they lose no time in getting up steam, paddling through the water at a marvellous rate by dint of flapping their little wings, the motion of which is so excessively rapid, that it is difficult to convince oneself that they are not revolving, leaving a long wake of foam like that produced by a miniature steamer behind them, and not ceasing this method of progression till a safe distance has intervened between them and the object of their dread. They often assist their escape, in addition, by diving, and coming up to the surface at a distance of many yards in a direction upon which it is impossible to calculate, when they show their heads for a moment, and then repeat the manoeuvre."

As regards the size and weight of the Steamer Duck, there is great divergence of opinion.

Pernety states:—"Chacun de ces Canards pese ordinairement de 19 à 20 livres au moins."

At Staten Island. Cook mentions:—"We shot some, and found them to weigh twenty-nine or thirty pounds; those who eat of them said they were very good."

"It is a gigantic Duck, the largest I have met with," observes King in Eagle Bay in 1827. "It moves with astonishing velocity. It would not be an exaggeration to state its speed at from twelve to fifteen miles an hour. The largest we found measured forty inches from the extremity of the bill, to that of the tail, and weighed thirteen pounds. It is very difficult to kill them, on account of their wariness and thick coat of