Just As With The Cheucau, A Person
Will Sometimes Hear The Bark Close By, But In Vain Many
Endeavour By Watching, And With Still Less Chance By Beating
The Bushes, To See The Bird; Yet At Other Times The Guid-Guid
Fearlessly Comes Near.
Its manner of feeding and its general
habits are very similar to those of the cheucau.
On the coast, [4] a small dusky-coloured bird (Opetiorhynchus
Patagonicus) is very common. It is remarkable from
its quiet habits; it lives entirely on the sea-beach, like a
sandpiper. Besides these birds only few others inhabit this
broken land. In my rough notes I describe the strange
noises, which, although frequently heard within these gloomy
forests, yet scarcely disturb the general silence. The yelping
of the guid-guid, and the sudden whew-whew of the
cheucau, sometimes come from afar off, and sometimes from
close at hand; the little black wren of Tierra del Fuego
occasionally adds its cry; the creeper (Oxyurus) follows the
intruder screaming and twittering; the humming-bird may
be seen every now and then darting from side to side, and
emitting, like an insect, its shrill chirp; lastly, from the top
of some lofty tree the indistinct but plaintive note of the
white-tufted tyrant-flycatcher (Myiobius) may be noticed.
From the great preponderance in most countries of certain
common genera of birds, such as the finches, one feels at
first surprised at meeting with the peculiar forms above
enumerated, as the commonest birds in any district.
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