122 HEAVY HAILSTORMS. [chap. '^^ 



mankind, and I am sure deserve to be hated for their never- 

 ceasing, unvaried, harsh screams. To the sportsman they 

 are most annoying, by telling every other bird and animal 

 of his approach ; to the traveller in the country, they may 

 possibly, as Molina says, do good, by warning him of the 

 midnight robber. During the breeding season, they attempt, 

 like our peewits, by feigning to be wounded, to draw away 

 from their nests dogs and other enemies. The eggs of this 

 bird are esteemed a great delicacy. 



September i6th. — To the seventh posta at the foot of the 

 Sierra Tapalguen. The country was quite level, with a 

 coarse herbage and a soft peaty soil. The hovel was here 

 remarkably neat, the posts and rafters being made of about 

 a dozen dry thistle-stalks bound together with thongs of 

 hide ; and by the support of these Ionic-like columns, the 

 roof and sides were thatched with reeds. We were here 

 told a fact, which I would not have credited, if I had not 

 had partly ocular proof of it ; namely, that, during the 

 previous night, hail as large as small apples, and extremely 

 hard, had fallen with such violence, as to kill the greater 

 number of the wild animals. One of the men had already 

 found thirteen deer {Cervus campestris) lying dead, and 1 

 saw their fresh hides ; another of the party, a few minutes 

 after my arrival, brought in seven more. Now I well know, 

 that one man without dogs could hardly have killed seven 

 deer in a week. The men believed they had seen about 

 fifteen dead ostriches (part of one of which we had for 

 dinner) ; and they said that several were running about 

 evidently blind in one eye. Numbers of smaller birds, as 

 ducks, hawks, and partridges, were killed. I saw one of 

 the latter with a black mark on its back, as if it had been 

 struck with a paving-stone. A fence of thistle-stalks round 

 the hovel was nearly broken down, and my informer, putting 

 his head out to see what was the matter, received a severe 

 cut, and now wore a bandage. The storm was said to have 

 been of limited extent : we certainly saw from our last 

 night's bivouac a dense cloud and lightning in this direction. 

 It is marvellous how such strong animals as deer could thus 

 have been killed ; but I have no doubt, from the evidence 

 I have given, that the story is not in the least exaggerated. 

 I am glad, however, to have its credibility supported by the 

 Jesuit Drobrizhoffer,* who, speaking of a country much to 

 the northward, says, hail fell of an enormous size and killed 



* " History of the Abipoaes," vol. u., p, 6. 



