CARANCHO 79 
from a distance of about forty feet, and rise with 
its struggling and squealing prey to a height of twenty 
feet, then drop it from his beak and gracefully catch 
it in his talons. Yet when it pursues and overtakes 
a bird in the air it invariably uses the claws in the 
same way as other Hawks. This I have frequently 
observed, and I give the two following anecdotes to 
show that even birds which one would imagine to 
be quite safe from the Carancho are on some occa- 
sions attacked by it. 
While walking in a fallow field near my home one 
day I came on a Pigeon feeding, and at once recog- 
nised it as one which had only begun to fly about a 
week before ; for although a large number of Pigeons 
were kept, this bird happened to be of the purest 
unspotted white, and for a long time I had been 
endeavouring to preserve and increase the pure white 
individuals, but with very little success, for the 
Peregrines invariably singled them out for attack. 
A Carancho was circling about at some distance 
overhead, and while I stood still to watch and admire 
my Pigeon it stooped to within twenty yards of the 
surface and remained hovering over my head. 
Presently the Pigeon became alarmed and flew 
away, whereupon the Hawk gave chase—a very 
vain chase I imagined it would prove. It lasted 
for about half a minute, the Pigeon rushing wildly 
round in wide circles, now mounting aloft and now 
plunging downwards close to the surface, the 
Carancho hotly following all the time. At length, 
evidently in great terror, the hunted bird flew down, 
