78 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



animals, and as being scarcely able to exist without 

 him. No doubt the bird does follow man greatly 

 to its advantage, but this is only in very thinly 

 settled and purely pastoral and hunting districts, 

 where a large proportion of the flesh of every animal 

 slain is given to the fowls of the air. Where the 

 population increases the Carancho quickly meets 

 with the fate of all large species which are regarded 

 as prejudicial. 



Without doubt it is a carrion-eater, but only, I 

 believe, when it cannot get fresh provisions ; for 

 when famished it will eat anything rather than study 

 its dignity and suffer hunger like the nobler Eagle, 

 I have frequently seen one or two or three of them 

 together on the ground under a column of winged 

 ants, eagerly feasting on the falling insects. To 

 eat putrid meat it must be very hungry indeed ; it 

 is, however, amazingly fond of freshly-killed flesh, 

 and when a cow is slaughtered at an estancia-house 

 the Carancho quickly appears on the scene to claim 

 his share, and catching up the first thing he can 

 lift he carries it off before the dogs can deprive him 

 of it. When he has risen to a height of five or six 

 yards in the air he drops the meat from his beak 

 and dexterously catches it in his claws without 

 pausing or swerving in his flight. It is singular 

 that the bird seems quite incapable of lifting anything 

 from the ground with the claws, the beak being 

 invariably used, even when the prey is an animal 

 which it might seem dangerous to lift in this way, 

 I once saw one of these birds swoop down on a rat 



