CARANCHO 85 
great subject of wonder to me how the two common 
species of snow-white Herons in South America are 
able to maintain their existence; for their whiteness 
exceeds that of other white waterfowl, while, com- 
pared with Swans, Storks, and the Wood-Ibis, they 
are small and feeble. I am sure that if these four 
Caranchos had attacked a Glossy Ibis they would 
have found it an easier conquest; yet they singled 
out the Egret, purely, I believe, on account of its 
shining white conspicuous plumage. 
This wing-contest was a very splendid spectacle, 
and I was very glad that I had witnessed it, although 
it ended badly for the poor Egret; but in another 
case of a combined attack by Caranchos there was 
nothing to admire except the intelligence displayed 
by the birds in combining, and much to cause the 
mind to revolt against the blindly destructive ferocity 
exhibited by Nature in the instincts of her creatures. 
The scene was witnessed by a beloved old gaucho 
friend of mine, a good observer, who related it to 
me. It was in summer, and he was riding in a 
narrow bridle-path on a plain covered with a dense 
growth of giant thistles, nine or ten feet high, when 
he noticed some distance ahead several Caranchos 
hovering over the spot; and at once conjectured 
that some large animal had fallen there, or that a 
traveller had been thrown from his horse and was 
lying injured among the thistles. On reaching the 
spot he found an open space of ground about forty 
yards in diameter, surrounded by the dense wall 
of close-growing thistles, and over this place the birds 
