52 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



and though he does not tell us what led him to form 

 such a conclusion, I have no doubt that it was because 

 the Eagle or Eagles he obtained had the skunk-smell 

 on their plumage* Most of the Eagles I shot in Pata- 

 gonia, including about a dozen Chilian Eagles, smelt 

 of skunk, the smell being in most cases old and faint* 

 Of two Crowned Harpies obtained, only one smelt 

 of skunk* This only shows that in Patagonia Eagles 

 attack the skunk, which is not strange considering 

 that it is of a suitable size and conspicuously marked ; 

 that it goes about fearlessly in the daytime and is the 

 most abundant animal, the small cavy excepted, in 

 that sterile country* But whether the Eagles succeed 

 in their attacks on it is a very different matter* The 

 probability is that when an Eagle, incited by the 

 pangs of hunger, commits so great a mistake as to 

 attack a skunk, the pestilent fluid, which has the 

 same terribly burning and nauseating effects on the 

 lower animals as on man, very quickly makes it 

 abandon the contest* It is certain that pumas make 

 the same mistake as the Eagles do, for in some that 

 are caught the fur smells strongly of skunk* It might 

 be said that the fact that many Eagles smell of skunk 

 serves to show that they do feed on them, for other- 

 wise they would learn by experience to avoid so dan- 

 gerous an animal, and the smell of a first encounter 

 would soon wear off* I do not think that hungry 

 birds of prey, in a barren country like Patagonia, 

 would learn from one repulse, or even from several, 

 the fruitlessness and danger of such attacks ; while 

 the smell is so marvellously persistent that one or 



