COMMON CARRION HAWKE 65 
or creamy ground; sometimes the whole egg is 
marbled with red; but there are endless varieties. 
It is easy to find the nest, and becomes easier when 
there are young birds, for the parent when out 
foraging invariably returns to her young uttering 
long mournful notes, so that one has only to listen 
and mark the spot where it alights. After visiting 
a nest I have always found the young birds soon 
disappear, and as the old birds vanish also I believe 
that the Chimango removes its young when the nest 
has been discovered—a rare habit with birds. 
Chimangos abound most in settled districts, but 
a prospect of food will quickly bring numbers 
together even in the most solitary places. On the 
desert pampas, where hunters, Indian and Euro- 
pean, have a great fancy for burning the dead grass, 
the moment the smoke of a distant fire is seen there 
the Chimangos fly to follow the conflagration. They 
are at such times strangely animated, dashing 
through clouds of smoke, feasting among the hot 
ashes on roasted cavies and other small mammals, 
and boldly pursuing the scorched fugitives from the 
flames. 
At all times and in all places the Chimango is ever 
ready to pounce on the weak, the sickly, and the 
wounded. In other regions of the globe these 
doomed ones fall into the clutches of the true bird 
of prey; but the salutary office of executioner is 
so effectually performed by the Chimango and his 
congeners where these false Hawks abound, that the 
true Hawks have a much keener struggle to exist 
E II 
