80 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
alighting within a yard of fy feet. I stooped to take 
hold of it, when, becoming frightened at my action, 
it flew straight up and was seized in the talons of 
its pursuer close to my face and carried away. 
In the next case the bird attacked was the Spur- 
winged Lapwing, the irreconcilable enemy of the 
Carancho and its bold and persistent persecutor. 
The very sight of this Hawk rouses the Lapwings 
to a frenzy of excitement, and springing aloft they 
hasten to meet it in mid-air, screaming loudly, and 
continue to harry it until it leaves their ground, 
after which they return, and, ranged in triplets, 
perform their triumphal dances, accompanied with 
loud drumming notes. But if their hated foe alights 
on the ground, or on some elevation near them, they 
hover about him, and first one, then another, rushes 
down with the greatest violence, and gliding near 
him turns the bend of its wings so that the spur 
appears almost to graze his head. While one bird 1s 
descending others are rising upwards to renew their 
charges; and this persecution continues until they 
drive him away or become exhausted with their 
fruitless efforts. The Carancho, however, takes 
little notice of his tormentors ; only when the Plover 
comes very close, evidently bent on piercing his 
skull with its sharp weapon, he quickly dodges his 
head, after which he resumes his indifferent de- 
meanour until the rush of the succeeding bird takes 
place. 
While out riding one day a Carancho flew past 
me attended by about thirty Lapwings, combined to 
