»832-3.] CAERION HAWKS. 



55 



warbling-. It is heard only during the spring. At other times 

 its cry is harsh and far from harmonious. Near Maldonado 

 these birds were tame and bold ; they constantly attended the 

 country houses in numbers, to pick the meat which was hung 

 up on the posts or walls : if any other small bird joined the 

 feast, the CaJandria soon chased it away. On the wide un- 

 inhabited plains of Patagonia another closely allied species, 

 0. Patagonica of d'Orbigny, which frequents the valleys clothed 

 with spiny bushes, is a wilder bird, and has a slightly different 

 tone of voice. It appears to me a curious circumstance, as 

 showing the fine shades of difference in habits, that judging from 

 tills latter respect alone, when I first saw this second species, I 

 thought it was different from the Maldonado kind. Having 

 afterwards procured a specimen, and comparing the two withou't 

 particular care, they appeared so very similar, that I changed my 

 opinion ; but now Mr. Gould says that they are certainly dis- 

 tinct ; a conclusion in conformity with the trifling difference of 

 habit, of which, however, he was not aware. 



The number, tameness, and disgusting habits of the carrion- 

 feeding hawks of South America make them pre-eminently strik- 

 ing to any one accustomed only to the birds of Northern Europe. 

 In this list may be included four species of the Caracara or Poly- 

 borus, the Turkey buzzard, the Gallinazo, and the Condor. The 

 Caracaras are, from their structure, placed among the eagles : we 

 shall soon see how ill they become so high a rank. In their 

 habits they well supply the place of our carrion-crows, magpies, 

 and ravens ; a tribe of birds widely distributed over the rest of 

 the world, but entirely absent in South America. To begin w ith 

 the Polyborus Brasiliensis : this is a common bird, and has a 

 wide geographical range; it is most numerous on the grassy 

 savannahs of La Plata (where it goes by the name of Carrancha), 

 and is far from unfrequent throughout the sterile plains of Pata- 

 gonia. In tlie desert between the rivers Negro and Colorado, 

 numbers constantly attend the line of road to devour the car- 

 casses of the exhausted animals which chance to perish from 

 fatigue and thirst. Although thus common in these dry and 

 open countries, and likewise on the arid shores of the Pacific, it 

 is nevertheless found inhabiting the damp impervious forests oi 

 West Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. The Carrancha^-, 



