[149] In the year 1783 there were 23,447 (Agüeros): and in 1832, 43,830.
[150] Agüeros says, "both men and women go generally with the foot and leg uncovered; with the exception of the principal families; but even those do not all wear shoes."—(Agüeros, p. 108.)
[151] Places where seal congregate—so called always by the sealers.
[152] Potatoes are not mentioned in the report, yet they must have been exported in considerable quantities.
[153] Molina, i. 167. A species of 'Dolichos.'
[154] The fanega weighs 175 lbs. and contains twelve almudes, which being cubic measures of eight inches and a half, contain each 614.125 cubic inches; therefore a fanega contains 7369.5 cubic inches, and as an English bushel contains 2150.4 cubic inches (2150.4 x 175)/7369.5 = 516⁄10 lbs. the weight of a bushel.
[155] Molina notices the 'Cagge,' or 'Chilóe duck,' (Anas antarctica) vol. i. p. 268, and calls it Anas hybrida. M. Lesson, in his 'Manuel d'Ornithologie,' ii. 409, has taken great pains to describe it, and remarks, with reason, that much obscurity exists in the specific descriptions of the goose kind in the Malouine (Falkland) Islands, and the extreme southern land of America. The male, Lesson says, is white, the feet and beak of a bright yellow colour. All the specimens that we saw, and numbers were killed by us, had a black beak with a red cere—otherwise M. Lesson's description is correct. In many specimens, however, we found the tip of the primary wing feathers black, which is not to be wondered at when the colour of the female is considered, but which it is not an easy task to describe. M. Lesson, I think, has done it justice in a note to his vol. ii. p. 409:—"Anas antarctica. A capite griseo, genis gulo colloque albo et nigro acuti-striatis; oculorum circuitu nudo: pectore abdomineque omninò atris, atque vittis niveis notatis: tectricibus alarum nigris; dorso uropygio caudâ et ano albis; alis niveis cum speculo lato virescente, brunneo marginato; pennis longis aterrimis; rostro et pedibus, aurantiacis."
These birds are very common in the Straits of Magalhaens, and every where on the west coast between the Strait and Chilóe; also at the Falkland Islands.
The Cancania (or Canqueña) is the Anas Magellanica, Anser Magellanicus (Ency. Méth. p. 117). From Buffon's description, and a well-drawn but badly-coloured figure, in the Planches Enluminées, No. 1006, I have no hesitation in assigning it to that kind. The colour of the head, however, instead of being 'reddish purple,' is cinereous with a reddish hue; the feathers of the sides and thigh covers are white, with five black bars, the extremity being white; the central portion of the abdomen is white; the speculum of a splendid shining green. This bird is common to the Strait as well as to Chilóe, and is probably Byron's 'Painted Duck,' and the Anser pictus of the Ency. Méth., p. 117. M. Lesson considers Anas leucoptera, Gmel. as the male of Anas Magellanica, which may be doubted. The 'Barking Bird,' as our sailors called it, was first brought to me by Capt. Stokes, having been shot during the Beagle's visit to Port Otway, in the Gulf of Peñas. It was an imperfect specimen; but Mr. Tarn afterwards obtained for me several others. It seems to have a great affinity to the genus Megapodius; but no specimens of that genus being in England when I was last there, and the Barking Bird differing in essential points from M. Tenminck's description of the genus, and from the figured specimen of Megapodius Freycinettii;—particularly in the length and form of its wings, which are rounded, and so short as not to reach beyond the base of the tail;—also in the emargination of the upper mandible;—I have been induced, by Mr. Vigors' advice, to form it, provisionally, into a new genus, termed Hylactes. (See Proc. Zool. Soc., vol. i. p. 15.) There is another specimen in our collection (now in the Zoological Society's Museum), which will probably be placed in this genus, but there existed some uncertainty in essential points, which prevented my describing it before I left England.
[156] Among the numerous testaceous productions is a small shell, which constitutes a new genus. Marinula, nob. in Zool. Journal, vol. v. p. 343. It was found on the wooden piles which support the mole in the bay of San Carlos, below the wash of the high water. The mole stands out into the sea, and there is no fresh water near it, save a very little rill, which discharges its tiny stream more than fifty yards off. This shell was named Marinula Pepita, Zool. Journal, l. c. No. 43. The following is its generic character:—'Testa ovato-producta, sub-solida; apertura ovata, integra; columella bidentata et basin versus uniplicata; dentibus magnis sub-remotis conniventibus, superiori maximo; operculum nullum.'