1S.33.J A VIOLENT HAIL-STORM. 115 



so does the teru-tero. While riding over the grassy plains, one 

 is constantly pursued by these birds, which appear to hate man- 

 kind, and I am sure deserve to be hated for their never-ceasing, 

 unvaried, harsh screams. To the sportsman they are most an- 

 noying, by telling every other bird and animal of his approach : 

 to the traveller in the country, they may possibly, as Molina 

 says, do good, by warning him of the midnight robber. During 

 the breeding season, they attempt, like our peewits, by feigning 

 to be wounded, to draw away from their nests dogs and other 

 enemies. The eggs of this bird are esteemed a great delicacy. 



September 16th. To the seventh posta at the foot of the Sierra 

 Tapalguen. The country was quite level, with a coarse herbage 

 and a soft peaty soil. The hovel was here remarkably neat, the 

 posts and rafters being made of about a dozen dry thistle- 

 stalks bound together with thongs of hide ; and by the support 

 of these Ionic-like columns, the roof and sides were thatched 

 with reeds. We were here told a fact, which I would not have 

 credited, if I had not had partly ocular proof of it ; namely, 

 that, during the previous night, hail as large as small apples, 

 and extremely hard, had fallen with such violence, as to kill 

 the greater number of the wild animals. One of the men had 

 already found thirteen deer (Cervus campestris) lying dead, and 

 I saw their fresh hides ; another of the party, a few minutes 

 after my arrival, brought in seven more. Now I well know, 

 that one man without dogs could hardly have killed seven deer 

 in a week. The men believed they had seen about fifteen dead 

 ostriches (part of one of which we had for dinner) ; and they 

 said that several were running about evidently blind in one eye. 

 Numbers of smaller birds, as ducks, hawks, and partridges, were 

 killed. I saw one of the latter with a black mark on its back, 

 as if it had been struck with a paving-stone. A fence of thistle- 

 stalks round the hovel was nearly broken down, and my in- 

 former, putting his head out to see what was the matter, received 

 a severe cut, and now wore a bandage. The storm was said to 

 have been of limited extent : we certainly saw from our last 

 night's bivouac a dense cloud and lightning in this direction. It 

 is marvellous how such strong animals as deer could thus have 

 been killed ; but I have no doubt, from the evidence I have 

 given, that the story is not in the least exaggerated. I am glad, 



i 2 



