

MILVAGO CHIMANGO. 77 



it to preserve found that one small shot had lodged in the fleshy portion 

 of the breast. It was a very slight wound, yet the Chimango with its 

 trained sight had noticed something wrong with the bird from the 

 moment it flew off, apparently in its usual free buoyant manner. 



On another occasion I was defrauded of a more valuable specimen 

 than the Tyrant-bird. It was on the east coast of Patagonia, when one 

 morning, while seated on an elevation, watching the waves dashing 

 themselves on the shore, I perceived a shining white object tossing 

 about at some distance from land. Successive waves brought it nearer, 

 till at last it was caught up and flung far out on to the shingle, fifty 

 yards from where I sat ; and instantly, before the cloud of spray had 

 vanished, a Chimango dashed down upon it. I jumped up and ran 

 down as fast as I could, and found my white object to be a Penguin, 

 apparently just killed by some accident out at sea, and in splendid 

 plumage ; but, alas ! in that moment the vile Chimango had stripped 

 off and devoured the skin from its head, so that as a specimen it was 

 hopelessly ruined. 



As a rule, strong healthy birds despise the Chimango ; they feed in 

 his company ; his sudden appearance causes no alarm, and they do not 

 take the trouble to persecute him ; but when they have eggs or young 

 he is not to be trusted. He is not easily turned from a nest he has 

 once discovered. I have seen h,im carry off a young Tyrant-bird (Mil- 

 vulus tyrannus), in the face of such an attack from the parent birds that 

 one would have imagined not even an Eagle could have weathered such 

 a tempest. Curiously enough, like one of the boldest of our small 

 Hawks (Tinnunculus cinnamominus),ihcy sometimes attack birds so much 

 too strong and big for them that they must know the assault will pro- 

 duce more annoyance than harm. I was once watching a flock of Coots 

 feeding on a grassy bank, when a passing Chimango paused in its flight, 

 and, after hovering over them a few moments, dashed down upon them 

 with such impetuosity that several birds were thrown to the ground by 

 the quick successive blows of its wings. There they lay on their backs, 

 kicking, apparently too much terrified to get up, while the Chimango 

 deliberately eyed them for some moments, then quietly flew away, 

 leaving them to dash into the water and cool their fright. Attacks like 

 these are possibly made in a sportive spirit, for the Milvago is a playful 

 bird, and, as with many other species, bird and mammal, its play always 

 takes the form of attack. 



Its inefficient weapons compel it to be more timid than the Hawk, 

 but there are many exceptions, and in every locality individual birds 

 are found distinguished by their temerity. Almost any shepherd can 

 say that his flock is subject to the persecutions of at least one pair of 



