COMMON CARRION HAWK 63 
had a whole volume to itself in England ; being only 
a poor foreigner it has had no more than a few 
unfriendly paragraphs bestowed upon it. For it 
happens to be a member of that South-American 
sub-family of which even grave naturalists have 
spoken slightingly, calling them vile, cowardly, con- 
temptible birds; and the Chimango is nearly least 
of them all—a sort of poor relation and hanger-on 
of a family already looked upon as bankrupt and 
disreputable. Despite this evil reputation, few 
species are more deserving of careful study; for 
throughout an extensive portion of South America 
it is the commonest bird we know; and when we 
consider how closely connected are the lives of all 
living creatures by means of their interlacing rela- 
tions, so that the predominance of any one kind, 
however innocuous, necessarily causes the modifi- 
cation, or extinction even, of surrounding species, 
we are better able to appreciate the importance of 
this despised fowl in the natural polity. Add to 
this its protean habits, and then, however poor a 
creature our bird may seem, and deserving of 
strange-sounding epithets from an ethical point of 
view, I do not know where the naturalist will find 
a more interesting one. 
The Chimango has not an engaging appearance. 
In size and figure it much resembles the Hen-Harrier, 
and the plumage is uniformly of a light sandy brown 
colour; the shanks are slender, claws weak, and 
beak so slightly hooked that it seems like the merest 
apology of the Falcon’s tearing weapon. It has an 
