JS32-3.J THE GALL1NA20. 69 



Chimango, it has found its way to the Falkland Islands. 

 The turkey-buzzard is a solitary bird, or at most pfoes in 

 pairs. It may at once be recognised from a long distance, 

 by its lofty soaring, and most elegant flight. It is well 

 known to be a true carrion-feeder. On the west coast of 

 Patagonia, among the thickly-wooded islets and broken 

 land, it lives exclusively on what the sea throws up, and on 

 the carcasses of dead seals. Wherever these animals are 

 congregated on the rocks, there the vultures may be seen. 

 The Gallinazo {Cathartes atratus) has a different range from 

 the last species, as it never occurs southward of lat. 41°. 

 Azara states that there exists a tradition that these birds, at 

 the time of the Conquest, were not found near Monte Video, 

 but that they subsequently followed the inhabitants from 

 more northern districts. At the present day they are 

 numerous in the valley of the Colorado, which is three 

 hundred miles due south of Monte Video. It seems 

 probable that this additional migration has happened since 

 the time of Azara. The Gallinazo generally prefers a 

 humid climate, or rather the neighbourhood of fresh water ; 

 hence it is extremely abundant in Brazil and La Plata, 

 while it is never found on the desert and arid plains oi 

 Northern Patagonia, excepting near some stream. These 

 birds frequent the whole Pampas to the foot of the 

 Cordillera, but I never saw or heard of one in Chile : in 

 Peru they are preserved as scavengers. These vultures 

 certainly may be called gregarious, for they seem to have 

 pleasure in society, and are not solely brought together by 

 the attraction of a common prey. On a fine day a flock 

 may often be observed at a great height, each bird wheeling 

 round and round without closing its wings, in the most 

 graceful evolutions. This is clearly performed for the mere 

 pleasure of the exercise, or perhaps is connected with their 

 matrimonial alliances. 



I have now mentioned all the carrion-teeders, excepting 

 the condor, an account of which will be more appropriately 

 introduced when we visit a country more congenial to its 

 habits than the plains of La Plata. 



In a broad band of sand-hillocks, which separate the 

 Laguna del Potrero from the shores of the Plata, at the 

 distance of a few miles from Maldonado, I found a group 

 of those vitrified, siliceous tubes, which are formed by 

 lightning entering loose sand. These tubes resemble in 



