1919-] Cape San Antonio, Buenos Ay7'es. 515 



the destructive and mischievous habits of the bird, in conflict 

 with the enhanced value of sheep-stock. In the old days, 

 the ordinary Merino* shee[) was of small account (I once 

 bought from a neighbour 400 at 15^/. for consumption), and 

 little attention was paid to the annual toll in newly-born 

 lambs or the loss in sheep-skins destroyed before the 

 shepherd discovered a dead animal. A shepherd's invariable 

 reply, on being interrogated as to the deficit in his flock at 

 the half-yearly counts, was " Lost ji campo," i. e. either 

 hidden in a thistle-bed or grass-covert until months had 

 passed, or the skin ruined by Caranchos immediately after 

 the sheep's death. And the explanation was tendered and 

 accepted, without comment. Times have changed ; the 

 improved sheep-breed stocks are too valuable to be dealt 

 with in the former casual manner, and the shepherd is called 

 upon to be "li cainpo^' himself all day long, and not merely 

 supervise the movements of the flock from the kitchen of his 

 puesto and the look-out ladder reared against the gable of 

 the roof; so that now the sheep-skins handed in must tally 

 with the live-stock counted, or the Gentle Shepherd is 

 treated most ungently, and has a short shrift. Hence, the 

 general harrying of nests wherever they are found, the use 

 of the shot-gun, and the wholesale employment of strych- 

 nine. The last-named is an efficient, Ijut risky factor ; 

 accordingly, we always keep the poison under lock and key, 

 and it is only made use of — on scientiflc principles — by one 

 of the members of the staff. For that purpose a newly-dead 

 horse is chosen, or an inefflcient mare is killed f (carrion of 



* The Merino was a most timid animal, and woultl aljandon lier 

 uewly-boni lamb on tlie slightest alarm ; whereas the modern Lincoln 

 or Cross-bred mother stands b\' her offspring, and defends it from all 

 comers. 



t In connection with llif above, 1 would draw attention to the 

 following non-ornithological but curious fact. When a Gaucho takes 

 off the hide of an equine animal he never skins the head, whicli, with 

 the ears attached, he invariably severs at the last vertebra and leaves 

 apart. Not so with anything bovine ; the whole of the head-skin (in- 

 cluding the very lips) is removed intact with the hide, and the head is 

 not detached from the carcase. It might be argmd tiiat the head-hide 



