348 CENTRAL CHILE. 



and then descend to partake of the feast, and be- 

 ing angrily driven away, rise altogether on the 

 wing. The Chileno Guaso then knows there is a 

 lion watching his prey; the word is given, and men 

 and dogs huny to the chase. Sir F. Head says 

 that a Gaucho in the Pampas, upon merely seeing 

 some condors wheeling in the air, cried, "A lion !" 

 I could never myself meet with any one Avho pre- 

 tended to such powers of discrimination. It is as- 

 serted, that if a puma has once been betrayed by 

 thus watching the carcass, and has then been hunt- 

 ed, it never resumes this habit, but that, having 

 gorged itself, it wanders far away. The puma is 

 easily killed. In an open country, it is first entan- 

 gled with the bolas, then lazoed, and dragged along 

 the gi-ound till rendered insensible. At Tandeel 

 (south of the Plata) I was told that within three 

 months one hundred were thus destroyed. In Chile 

 they are generally driven up bushes or trees, and 

 are then either shot or baited to death by dogs. 

 The dogs employed in this chase belong to a par- 

 ticular breed, called Leoneros : they are weal\, 

 slight animals, like long-legged temers, but are 

 bom with a particular instinct for this sport. The 

 puma is described as being very crafty : when pur- 

 sued, it often returns on its former track, and then 

 suddenly making a spring on one side, waits there 

 till the dogs have passed by. It is a very silent an- 

 imal, uttering no cry even when wounded, and only 

 rarely during the breeding season. 



Of birds, two species of the genus Pteroptochos 

 (megapodius and albicollis of Kittlitz) are perhaps 

 the most conspicuous. The former, called by the 

 Chilenos " el Turco," is as large as a fieldfare, to 

 which bird it has some alliance ; but its legs are 

 much longer, tail shorter, and beak stronger : its 

 colour is a reddish brown. The Turco is not un- 



