CARANCHO 85 



great subject of wonder to me how the two common 

 species of snow-white Herons in South America are 

 able to maintain their existence ; for their whiteness 

 exceeds that of other white waterfowl, while, com- 

 pared with Swans, Storks, and the Wood- Ibis, they 

 are small and feeble. I am sure that if these four 

 Caranchos had attacked a Glossy Ibis they would 

 have found it an easier conquest ; yet they singled 

 out the Egret, purely, I believe, on account of its 

 shining white conspicuous plumage. 



This wing-contest was a very splendid spectacle, 

 and I was very glad that I had witnessed it, although 

 it ended badly for the poor Egret ; but in another 

 case of a combined attack by Caranchos there was 

 nothing to admire except the intelligence displayed 

 by the birds in combining, and much to cause the 

 mind to revolt against the blindly destructive ferocity 

 exhibited by Nature in the instincts of her creatures. 

 The scene was witnessed by a beloved old gaucho 

 friend of mine, a good observer, who related it to 

 me. It was in summer, and he was riding in a 

 narrow bridle-path on a plain covered with a dense 

 growth of giant thistles, nine or ten feet high, when 

 he noticed some distance ahead several Caranchos 

 hovering over the spot ; and at once conjectured 

 that some large animal had fallen there, or that a 

 traveller had been thrown from his horse and was 

 lying injured among the thistles. On reaching the 

 spot he found an open space of ground about forty 

 yards in diameter, surrounded by the dense wall 

 of close-growing thistles, and over this place the birds 



