44 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



and to pursue and strike it down with its claws* 

 Mr, Gibson's account of its habits agrees with mine, 

 and he says that " it will raise any small bird time 

 after time, should the latter endeavour to conceal 

 itself in the grass, preferring, as it would seem, to 

 strike it on the wing/' He further says : " Its 

 flight is low and rather rapid, while if its quarry 

 should double it loses no ground, for it turns some- 

 thing in the manner of a Tumbler Pigeon, going 

 rapidly head over heels in the most eccentric and 

 amusing fashion," 



Probably this Harrier has a partial migration, as 

 a great many are always seen travelling across the 

 pampas in the autumn and spring ; many individuals, 

 however, remain all the winter. 



The nest is made on the ground among long grass, 

 or in reed-beds in marshy places, and the eggs are 

 white, blotched with dark red. 



VOCIFEROUS HAWK 



Asturina pucherani 



Above dark brown ; upper tail-coverts fulvous, barred with brown ; 

 wings chestnut barred and broadly tipped with black; tail fulvous, 

 crossed with four black bars ; beneath pale ochraceous, barred with 

 rufous; bill black, feet yellow; length 18 inches. Female larger, 



THIS brown-plumaged, short-winged, and exceed- 

 ingly vociferous Hawk is common in the woods 

 along the shores of the Plata and its tributaries, and 

 is never found far removed from water. It perches 



