POLYBOHUS TIIARUS. 85 



shaken off; he was never more than a yard behind his quarry, and I 

 was near enough to distinguish the piteous screams of the chased Lap- 

 wing amidst all the tumult, as of a bird already captive. At the end of 

 about a minute it was seized in the Carancho's talons, and, still violently 

 screaming, borne away. The cloud of Lapwings followed for some 

 distance, but presently they all returned to the fatal spot where the 

 contest had taken place; and for an hour afterwards they continued 

 soaring about in separate bodies, screaming all the time with an unusual 

 note in their voices as of fear or grief, and holding excited conclaves on 

 the ground, to all appearance as greatly disturbed in their minds as an 

 equal number of highly emotional human beings would be in the event 

 of a similar disaster overtaking them. 



It is not often, however, that the Carancho ventures singly to attack 

 adult and vigorous birds, except Tinamous ; they prey by preference on 

 the young or ailing, on small lambs and pigs left at a distance by their 

 dams ; and they also frequently attack and kill old and weakly sbeep_ 

 Where anything is wrong with bird or beast they are very quick to 

 detect it, and will follow a sportsman to pick up the wounded birds, 

 intelligently keeping at a safe distance, themselves. I once shot a 

 Flamingo in the grey stage of plumage and had some trouble to cross 

 the stream, on the opposite side of which the bird, wounded very 

 slightly, was rapidly stalking away. In three or four minutes I was 

 over and found my Flamingo endeavouring to defend itself against the 

 assaults of a Carancho which had marked it for its own, and was striking 

 it on the neck and breast in the most vigorous and determined way, 

 sometimes from above, at other times alighting on the ground before it 

 and springing up to strike like a game-cock. A spot of blood on the 

 plumage of the wounded bird, which had only one wing slightly 

 damaged, had been sufficient to call down the attack; for to the 

 Carancho a spot of blood, a drooping wing, or any irregularity in the 

 gait, quickly tells its tale. 



When several of these birds combine they are very bold. A friend 

 told me that while voyaging on the Parana river a Black-necked Swan 

 flew past him hotly pursued by three Caranchos ; and I also witnessed an 

 attack by four birds on a widely different species. I was standing on the 

 bank of a stream on the pampas watching a great concourse of birds of 

 several kinds on the opposite shore, where the carcass of a horse, from 

 which the hide had been stripped, lay at the edge of the water. One 

 or two hundred Hooded Gulls and about a dozen Chimangos were 

 gathered about the carcass, and close to them a very large flock of 

 Glossy Ibises were wading about in the water, while amongst these, 

 standing motionless in the water, was one solitary White Egret. 



