1920.] Cape. Sati Antonio^ Buenos Ayres. 3 



We were presently joined by young B., who casually 

 remarked, " Look at the height of these Chajas up in the 

 sky " (Chajas over a city of a million and a half inhabitants!). 

 E. and I looked at each other and up to the zenith at the 

 indicated specks^ and then the former commented, sadly, 

 " B., my friend, certain unjust and corrupt judges have 

 awarded you and your worthy father, in the course of the 

 last two days (and utterly regardless of my superior claims), 

 many and great silver cups. It is to be feared that you have 

 hallowed these last night to more than the orthodox extent. 

 The birds you see are not Chajas, but the first of the spring- 

 swallows." At that moment there came faintly down to 

 our ears the well-known notes, " Chaja, Chaja-li," of the 

 birds in question ! E. pulled himself up, angrily, and turned 

 to me, " What is the meaning of that, Gibson? We are not 

 in the Camp.^' '' No,^^ I replied, laughingly, " but now I 

 come to think of it, the Zoological Gardens are just across 

 the way, and I remember having seen various Chajas 

 amongst the birds in a state of freedom about the lawns ; 

 nevertheless, it had not occurred to me that they were 

 unpiuioned and might soar at their own sweet will.^' 

 Similarly, one hot July day in the London Zoo, I was 

 startled from a reverie, my thoughts far away in the Camp, 

 by the sonorous cry from a neighbouring enclosure. Again, 

 going through the Cambridge Museum recently, my atten- 

 tion was called to a case of birds in connection with which 

 my name figured ; and I was amused to find they were a 

 series of two Chajas with their young, which I had furnished 

 "by request " of a mutual friend many years ago, and quite 

 forgotten. 



The tameness of the Chaja has been alluded to by 

 Mr. Hudson, and I can readily credit his statement that in 

 former years he " had often ridden through large scattered 

 flocks without making the birds take wing.^^ The same 

 thing has occurred to me when travelling by the " galera," 

 or stage-coach, between Ajo and Dolores ; only those birds 

 more directly in our way taking reluctantly to flight for 

 a short distance, though sometimes there would be an 



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