78 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
animals, and as being scaftely able to exist without 
him. No doubt the bird does follow man greatly 
to its advantage, but this is only in very thinly 
settled and purely pastoral and hunting districts, 
where a large proportion of the flesh of every animal 
slain is given to the fowls of the air. Where the 
population increases the Carancho quickly meets 
with the fate of all large species which are regarded 
as prejudicial. 
Without doubt it is a carrion-eater, but only, I 
believe, when it cannot get fresh provisions; for 
when famished it will eat anything rather than study 
its dignity and suffer hunger like the nobler Eagle. 
I have frequently seen one or two or three of them 
together on the ground under a column of winged 
ants, eagerly feasting on the falling insects. To 
eat putrid meat it must be very hungry indeed; it 
is, however, amazingly fond of freshly-killed flesh, 
and when a cow is slaughtered at an estancia-house 
the Carancho quickly appears on the scene to claim 
his share, and catching up the first thing he can 
lift he carries it off before the dogs can deprive him 
of it. When he has risen to a height of five or six 
yards in the air he drops the meat from his beak 
and dexterously catches it in his claws without 
pausing or swerving in his flight. It is singular 
that the bird seems quite incapable of lifting anything 
from the ground with the claws, the beak being 
invariably used, even when the prey is an animal 
which it might seem dangerous to lift in this way. 
I once saw one of these birds swoop down on a rat 
