CARRION HAWKS. 57 



the fowls about a country barnyard. While driving along I frequently 

 noticed that, when by chance a carcass lay directly in our way, instead 

 of taking to flight at our approach, they would linger until almost 

 directly beneath the horse's feet, when they would reluctantly hop off to 

 one side in their peculiarly grotesque manner, uttering, at the same time, 

 a series of loud, harsh, rasping notes as they stood at a few feet only 

 from our cart, as though to remonstrate with and scold us for this appar- 

 ently unnecessary disturbance of their feast, which was quickly resumed 

 immediately we had passed by. 



There are three species of carrion hawks in southern Patagonia. These 

 pertain to three different genera, Polyborns tJianis, Ibycter albigularis, and 

 Milvago cJiiinango, but are all given the common name of carrancha by 

 the natives. I could not detect that they had any distinguishing names 

 for the different species, which, though of almost identical habits, were so 

 unlike in color. Although frequently seen mingled together and feeding 

 from the same carcass, it cannot be said that such social relations were 

 entirely harmonious, since they indulged almost continuously in most 

 spirited personal conflicts, though I cannot assert that such engagements 

 were any less frequent between individuals of the same species than 

 between those belonging to different species. 



Carranchas are quite common all over the Patagonian plains and in the 

 depths of the Andean forests as well, where they seem equally at home. 

 Indeed, being true scavengers, their distribution and numbers at any par- 

 ticular place would seem to be directly proportionate to the food supply. 

 They are therefore found in considerable numbers in the forests of the 

 lower Andes and along the water courses to the eastward, somewhat rarely 

 on the high, arid, lava-covered plains lying between the Andes and the 

 Atlantic, while they fairly swarm about the estancias near the coast, where 

 they feed on the dead carcasses of sheep, horses or other animals, the 

 former of which die by the thousands from old age. Through the lack of 

 proper facilities for the exporting of mutton from this country ,the wethers 

 as well as the ewes are kept for their wool, until they die from senility or 

 disease. Thus to one accustomed to sheep raising in other countries the 

 percentage of loss among the flocks appears abnormally high, as he sees 

 hundreds or even thousands of carcasses lying about the paddocks and 

 dipping pens, or scattered over the pasture lands. By devouring these 

 carcasses the carranchas, aided by the condor, Sarcorhamphits gryphus, 



