Birds of Uruguay. 197 



(who get so much each for them) ; but I think the bh'ds 

 breed earlj^ as I found no eggs, and a young bird was 

 brought in soon after I arrived. I have seen as many as 

 eight together^ wheeling over the monte. On the Rio Negro 

 they were even more abundant. One day I saw eight sitting 

 round a dead sheep, and on another occasion there were 

 great numbers over the river and settling in the trees ; I 

 counted 27 in one dead tree. The cry of this bird is 

 rather like the quavering croak of the Carrion Crow, and 

 this, together with its black colour, may have earned from 

 the first settlers its common name of '' Cuervo." 



I saw various Buzzards and one Harrier ; but birds of prey 

 generally were much less common than I anticipated, and 

 these are all the species I was able to identify. 



-i 89. Phalacrocorax brasilianus. Brazilian Cormorant. 



On October 1st I noticed from the ship a good many 

 about Flores Island. They are very numerous in Montevideo 

 Bay. On the 13th, about 6.30 or 7 a.m., a huge thick line of 

 them came in round the city point into the bay, to fish', I 

 suppose; there must have been upwards of a thousand. 

 They were apparently resident on the rivers in the interior, 

 visiting the canadas to fish, some of the isolated rocks in 

 the bed of these or on the banks being completely white- 

 washed by their excrement. I saw Cormorants either 

 singly or in pairs all the time I was in Soriano and 

 Flores, and on the Rio Negro also. On the 7th April I 

 shot an immature bird and had seen a good many others. 

 Yet I could never discover the birds breeding, although 

 many were adults in very fine plumage. 



90. Ardea cocoi. Cocoi Heron. 



This fine bird, which bears a striking resemblance to the 

 common English bird and has very similar habits, was often 

 to be seen, and doubtless breeds. I saw both adults and 

 young, but failed to find them nesting. They were almost as 

 wary as Herons in England. On 8tli May I shot, after a 

 careful stalk, a magnificent adult bird, a description of 

 which (as it diflers slightly from that in ' Argentine Orni- 



SER. VI. VOL. VI. P 



