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. In central Chile two of them, namely, the Oxyurus and
Scytalopus, occur, although most rarely. When finding, as in this
case, animals which seem to play so insignificant a part in the
great scheme of nature, one is apt to wonder why they were created.
But it should always be recollected, that in some other country
perhaps they are essential members of society, or at some former
period may have been so. If America south of 37 degrees were sunk
beneath the waters of the ocean, these two birds might continue to
exist in central Chile for a long period, but it is very improbable
that their numbers would increase. We should then see a case which
must inevitably have happened with very many animals.
These southern seas are frequented by several species of Petrels:
the largest kind, Procellaria gigantea, or nelly (quebrantahuesos,
or break-bones, of the Spaniards), is a common bird, both in the
inland channels and on the open sea. In its habits and manner of
flight there is a very close resemblance with the albatross; and as
with the albatross, a person may watch it for hours together
without seeing on what it feeds.
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