416 Mr. E. Gibson on the Ornithology of 



friend new to the country went out Duck-shooting one day. 

 Birds were abundant^ and fell in twos and threes to every 

 shot, so that he was compelled to leave them in heaps along 

 the edge of the swamps, though dubious if his horse could 

 carry them all when he should come to retrace his steps. 

 But the Caranchos saved him the trouble ; for " when he got 

 there the cupboard was bare/^ nothing remaining of some 

 scores of fat Ducks but those he had last shot and various 

 piles of feathers ! I was amused once by the respect some 

 half dozen Caranchos showed to a young Stork [Ciconia ma- 

 guari) . I had taken the latter, a half-grown bird, from its 

 nest in a swamp, and, after tying it by the leg to a " duras- 

 nillo " on a small island, went off again into the wilderness 

 of reeds and rushes. While there the traro traro of the 

 Carancho became audible, evidently coming from the island ; 

 and, as I suspected, on hurrying back I found the young 

 Stork surrounded by several Caranchos, forming a circle 

 closely round him. Every now and then one would pluck up 

 courage enough to approach the apparently helpless quarry ; 

 but the Stork showed itself an able sworder, and a sudden 

 thrust from its long bill sent the would-be assailant away, 

 uttering hoarse cries of fear and pain. 



Once, in 1873 1 think, a Carancho took advantage of my pre- 

 sence in a most audacious mannner. I was collecting eggs in a 

 colony of Egrets (the nests being placed very closely together 

 among the rushes) ; and this rascal kept close to me, alighting 

 on those nests from which the birds had been driven by my 

 approach, and breaking e^^ after egg. A blow from my 

 hunting-knife (the butt-end unluckily) drove it away ulti- 

 mately ; and then I had to dismount and fish for the said 

 knife in three feet of mud and water. 



Perhaps the most ludicrous thing I ever saw a Carancho 

 do was in connexion with a polecat, or skunk. Riding home 

 about sundown one evening, I came across the latter in the 

 camp, shuffling about in the erratic way peculiar to that odori- 

 ferous quadruped, with the said Carancho hopping along in 

 its rear. Occasionally, when its attendant approached too 

 closely, the polecat would stop and erect its tail in a threaten- 



