Owing to the excessive roughness of the weather, our passage from Rio Janeiro to the Bay of Conception afforded us but few opportunities to add to our collections. A snipe blown out to sea from the Rio de la Plata, a specimen of Diomedea Albatros at Terra del Fuego, a large Salpa, and a Lepas, were all we were able to obtain. The Bay of Conception presents a rich field to the ornithologist. A kind of parrot, with a long tail, and naked round the eyes, flies about in swarms; and a smaller kind from the interior, is to be found tame in the houses; our guns frequently brought down two small kinds of doves. Of Ambulatores we met some, of the genera Cassicus, Motacilla, Muscicapa, Pyrgita, Saxicola, Cotile; of birds of prey, Percnopterus Jota Mol., and two buzzards; of Grallatores, two kinds of Hæmatopus, both with white legs, the one with a black body, as H. niger is described by Quoy and Gaimard, the other more similar to the European; a Vanellus with spurs to the wings, Numenius, Scolopax, Phalaropus, Ardea Nycticorax; and lastly a small bird with remarkably short legs, digitated, and with a short thick bill, frequenting the sea-shore, and feeding on seeds of Rumex and Polygonum, and constituting a new species, which may be called Thinocorus. Of aquatic birds, there were two kinds of Sterna and Larus; many thousands of Rynchops nigra, which were so numerous as to appear like clouds when they rose into the air; a Procellaria of the variety Nectris; two kinds of Podiceps, and an Aptenodytes of the variety Spheniscus. The upper part of the latter was of a lead colour, and the lower part white, with a line of dullish grey running from the bill to the belly, and forming a boundary between the two colours; the bill and legs quite black. The animal was alive when brought to us. When resting, it lay upon its belly and stretched out its head. In the water it appeared unable to maintain itself afloat except by incessant paddling, the whole of the body being meanwhile under water.
Of amphibia, only five kinds can be distinctly named; a brown Coluber, two small lizards of the family of Scincoidea, a small Rana, with a spot like an eye on the belly, and a small Bufo. Of fishes, the most remarkable was a Torpedo, with the back of a reddish brown, and smooth; and a Callorhynchus antarcticus: the latter may very well remain in the class of Chimæra. Of crustaceæ, we collected three Canceres, a Portunus, a Porcellana, a Sphæroma, and a Ligia.
The dry land along the coast is extremely poor in insects. The number of beetles collected in 1816, together with those taken on the present occasion, amounted only to sixty seven, but they are altogether peculiar to the country. The most remarkable are a Carabus of the beautiful colours of the hispanus, but with narrow striped cases to the wings, and a large Prionus: the joints of the feet, in this latter, are short and cylindrical, constituting a distinction from the whole family of the Cerambycinæ; in every other respect it is unquestionably a Prionus, and may be called Pr. Mercurius, on account of two wing-shaped appendages, attached to the neck-corselet. Sixteen Carabicides were found belonging to the Calosoma, Pæcilus, Harpalus, Trechus, Dromius, and Peryphus. We were surprised at finding so few dung-beetles. We met with only two large ones, namely, the Megathopa villosa of Esch. Entomography, forming a species of the Ateuchus, and a Copris torulosa, described in the same work; this, however, is owing to the very little moisture in the atmosphere, which dries the dung almost immediately. It is curious, that all the seventeen kinds of Copris of South America known to us, have but seven stripes upon each wing-case; whereas those of the Old World have eight: the larger kinds, Hamadrias, Bucephalus, and Isidis,[4] alone agree with the South American in the number of stripes. Of the Americans, the C. Hesperus Oliv. is the only one with a border to the seventh stripe, and the C. Actæon Klug of Mexico is the only one that has eight stripes.
Various kinds of beetles in Chili seek a shelter from the rays of the sun in the dry cow-dung: almost all the Heteromerides with wings grown together, the greater part of the beetles armed with trunks, and several Carabides, were found there. The ten kinds of Heteromerides, with distorted wings, found here, belong to five new classes: the other Heteromerides consist of a Helops and a black Lytta with red thighs. Of beetles furnished with a proboscis, we met with four kinds of Listroderes, two remarkable Cryptorhynchi, and a few others of the shape of a Rhigus. Lastly are to be noticed, a Lucanus of the form of the femoratus, a large Stenopterus, and a large black Psoa. We found very few other species of insects, but several kinds of Pompilus, one two inches long, and a curious Castnia, were the most remarkable.
Of marine animals there remain to be noticed—a small Octopus, a Loligo, two Chiton, Patella, Crepidula, Pilcopsis, Fissurella, Calyptræa; of Concholepas, only empty shells; a large Mytilus, a small Modiola, Turritella, Turbo, Balanus; and a Holothuria of the variety Psolus.
In the vast sea between the coast of Chili and the Low Islands or the dangerous Archipelago, very few animals appear to live near the surface, at least we saw none; a quantity of flying-fish were seen, resembling the Exocœtus volitans, but having the rays of the breast-fins parted towards the end. During the short space of ten days that we stayed at O Tahaiti, the inhabitants, who for a trifling remuneration brought us all sorts of marine animals, enabled us to make acquaintance with all the natural productions of this much praised country. Birds are scarce in the lowlands along the coast. The little blue Psittacus Taitianus frequents the top of the cocoa-palm; the Ardea sacra walks along the coral reefs; but it is seldom that a tropical bird is seen on the wing. A Gecko of the species Hemidactylus lives about old houses; a small lizard of the family of Scincoidea, with a copper-coloured body and a blue tail, and a striped Ablepharus, are met with frequently among the rocks. Of fishes, the variety is great, many of them of splendid colours, particularly the small ones, which feed upon the coral, and seek shelter among its branches. The same place of refuge is chosen by numbers of variegated crabs, more particularly the Grapsus, Portunus, and Galathea. Three kinds of Canceres already known were brought us, the maculatus, corallinus, and floridus; the two former move but little, and their shells are as hard as stones. A small Gelasimus burrows under the ground, and makes himself a subterranean passage from the water to the dry land. The female has very small claws, but the male has always one very large pink claw, which is sometimes the right and sometimes the left.
A large brownish Gecarcinus lives entirely on the land, in holes of his own making; his gills accordingly are not open combs, but consist of rows of bags closely pressed together, and somewhat resembling bladders. Hippa adactyla F. is very frequent here, and keeps itself concealed under the sands on the sea-shore. It was from these that Fabricius, who has given a wrong description of their legs, formed his species Hippa; Latreille mentions them by the name of Remipes testudinarius. Six kinds of Pagurus. Of Crustacea already described, Palæmon longimanus, Alphæus marmoratus, and Squilla chiragra; the legs of the last are red, and formed like a club; it uses them as weapons of offence or defence, and inflicts wounds in striking them out by a mechanism peculiar to itself. The number of insects collected on the low land was very small; among them the Staphylinus erytrocephalus, also a native of New Holland; an Aphodius, scarcely to be distinguished from the limbatus Wiedem. of the Cape of Good Hope; an Elater of the species Monocrepis; of Oedemera, three varieties of the species Dytilus, to which belong the Dryops livida and lineata F.; two small varieties of Apate; Anthribus, Cossonnus, Lamia, Sphinx pungens, and a large Phasma.
No place could be more convenient for the observation of the Mollusca and Radiata than Cape Venus. At a few hundred paces from the shore is a coral reef, which at low water is completely dry. In the shoal water, between the reef and the shore, is found the greatest variety of the more brittle kinds of coral, and among their sometimes thick bushes, mollusca and echinodermes lie concealed. The rapid movements of a small Strombus, which, when taken, beat about it with its shell, formed like a thin plate of horn, and armed with sharp teeth, were very curious. On breaking the stone which is formed by fragments of coral, a Sternaspis was found burrowing in the interior. Seven classes of Holothuria were examined; three belonged to the species of Holothuria, called by Lamarck Fistularia, but which name had already been given by Linnæus to the tobacco-pipe fish; the fourth was a species newly discovered, and to which we appropriated the name of Odontopyga, because the fundament is armed with five calcareous teeth; the belly is furnished with small tubes, and the back covered with bumps. Two more belong to the species Thyone; and the seventh kind of Holothuria ought, properly speaking, to form a class apart, not having tubular feet, but adhering, by means of their sharp skin, to extraneous objects, on which account they might be called Sinapta; their feelers are fringed and they live concealed among stones. We found five small kinds of sea-leeches; and among three kinds of star-fish, the Asterias Echinites, the large radii of which easily inflict a severe wound; another had the form of the Asterias Luna, was eight inches in diameter, without radii, and had more the appearance of a round loaf of bread somewhat flattened. Of corals, the variety was very great, as may be judged from the circumstance of our having collected twenty-four kinds within so short a space of time. Fungia is quite at home here; for, independently of F. agariciformis, scutaria, and limacina, a long kind was also found, having, like the two former, only one central cavity; they are found in shallow water among other corals. Of tabular corals already known, there remain to be mentioned, Pavonia boletiformis, Madrepora prolifera abrotanoides, corymbosa, plantaginea, and pocillifera.
The inhabitants of the Navigator Isles brought us the little Psittacus australis, Columba australis, and another very prettily marked dove, having green plumage, ornamented with a dark violet line across the breast, and the feet and head of a reddish purple. It climbed about the sides and roof of its cage, did not leave its perch when it wanted to drink, but stooped down so low as merely to hang by its legs; it would not eat seed, but lived principally on fruit, particularly bananas, all which closely agreed with the habits of parrots.
During our passage to the equator, Sterna solida and Dysporus Sula alighted frequently on our vessel, and allowed themselves to be taken. The latter, when old, has a blue beak and red feet; when young, a red bill and flesh-coloured legs. The exterior nostrils are entirely wanting; but in every part are air-cells between the skin and the muscles.