COMMON CARRION HAWK 63 



had a whole volume to itself in England ; being only 

 a poor foreigner it has had no more than a few 

 unfriendly paragraphs bestowed upon it. For it 

 happens to be a member of that South-American 

 sub-family of which even grave naturalists have 

 spoken slightingly, calling them vile, cowardly, con- 

 temptible birds ; and the Chimango is nearly least 

 of them all a sort of poor relation and hanger-on 

 of a family already looked upon as bankrupt and 

 disreputable. Despite this evil reputation, few 

 species are more deserving of careful study ; for 

 throughout an extensive portion of South America 

 it is the commonest bird we know ; and when we 

 consider how closely connected are the lives of all 

 living creatures by means of their interlacing rela- 

 tions, so that the predominance of any one kind, 

 however innocuous, necessarily causes the modifi- 

 cation, or extinction even, of surrounding species, 

 we are better able to appreciate the importance of 

 this despised fowl in the natural polity. Add to 

 this its protean habits, and then, however poor a 

 creature our bird may seem, and deserving of 

 strange-sounding epithets from an ethical point of 

 view, I do not know where the naturalist will find 

 a more interesting one. 



The Chimango has not an engaging appearance. 

 In size and figure it much resembles the Hen-Harrier, 

 and the plumage is uniformly of a light sandy brown 

 colour ; the shanks are slender, claws weak, and 

 beak so slightly hooked that it seems like the merest 

 apology of the Falcon's tearing weapon. It has an 



