70 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
pursued by a hungry Chifffango, determined to dine 
on a portion of him. 
In the hot season, when marshes and lagoons are 
drying up, the Chimango is seen associating with 
Ibises and other waders, standing knee-deep in the 
water and watching for tadpoles, frogs, and other 
aquatic prey. He also wades after a very different 
kind of food. At the bottom of pools, collected on 
clayey soil after a summer shower, an edible fungus 
grows, of a dull greenish colour and resembling 
gelatine. He has found out that this fungus is good 
for food, though I never saw any other creature 
eating it. In cultivated districts he follows the plough 
in company with the Black-headed Gulls, Molothri, 
Guira Cuckoos, and Tyrant-birds, and clumsily 
gleans amongst the fresh-turned mould for worms 
and larve. He also attends the pigs when they are 
rooting on the plain to share any succulent treasure 
turned up by their snouts; for he is not a bird that 
allows dignity to stand between him and his dinner. 
In the autumn, on damp, sultry days, the red ants, 
that make small conical mounds on the pampas, 
are everywhere seen swarming. Rising high in the 
air they form a little cloud or column, and hang 
suspended for hours over the same spot. On such 
days the Milvagos fare sumptuously on little insects, 
and under each cloud of winged ants several of them 
are to be seen in company with a few Flycatchers, 
or other diminutive species, briskly running about 
to pick up the falling manna, their enjoyment un- 
disturbed by any sense of incongruity. 
