186 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
burnt up by the sun and Mf6wn to the ground, they 
scatter about a great deal in flocks of from one to 
four or five hundred. At noon, however, they all 
resort to a lagoon or marshy place containing water, 
congregating day after day in such numbers that 
they blacken the ground over an area of several acres 
in extent; and at a distance of a quarter of a mile 
the din of their united voices resembles the roar of 
a cataract. As population increases on the pampas 
these stupendous gatherings are becoming more and 
more rare. Twenty-five years ago it was an excep- 
tional thing for a man to possess a gun, or to use 
one when he had it; and if Chorlos were wanted, 
a gaucho boy, with a string a yard long with a ball 
of lead attached to each end, could knock down as 
many as he liked. I have killed them in this way 
myself, also with the bola perdida—a ball at the end 
of a long string thrown at random into a cloud of 
birds. 
The habits, flight, and language of the Golden 
Plover need not be spoken of here, as this bird has 
been so often and exhaustively described by North 
American ornithologists. The only peculiarity it 
possesses which I have not seen mentioned, is its 
faculty of producing a loud sound, as of a horn, when 
a few passing birds, catching sight of others of their 
kind on the ground below, descend violently and 
almost vertically to the earth with unmoving wings. 
This feat is, however, rarely witnessed ; and on the 
first occasion when I heard the sound high above 
me, and looked up to see half a dozen Chorlos rushing 
