4 Mr. E. Gibson on the Ornithologij of [Ibis, 



uudiguified scurry aud beating of great wings if the leading 

 postilion suddenly swerved owing to the exigencies of the 

 track. Flocks of birds are very local in their habits when 

 resting at certain periods of the day, and one such, com- 

 posed of some forty individuals, near the Yngleses head- 

 station, used barely to keep clear of the general traffic, and 

 would be found about the same place every day for months 

 at a time. Of a pair which I j^assed one day at a pond in 

 the woods, and which saw me approaching, one rose at a 

 normal distance of perhaps a hundred yards ; the other not 

 until I was within five yards of it, when it leisurely took to 

 flight on my left, the volume of air from its powerful 

 wings being strongly perceptible and causing my otherwise- 

 unconcerned horse to prick its ears interrogatively. On 

 another occasion, riding sharply round a bend in a swamp, 

 I came across a pair standing in a shallow pool ; taken by 

 surprise they rose, wheeled suddenly towards each other, 

 and came into collision at a height of about twenty feet, 

 the shock causing one to land in the water again, where it 

 remained for a moment or two looking decidedly bewildered^ 

 An unusual incident was that of a single Chajii ponderously 

 flying after an evil-looking Carancho [PoJijhorus tharus^lo\.\ 

 which it drove off and then returned to the starting-place, 

 where I surmise its young were. 



These birds are easily domesticated (again as mentioned by 

 Hudson), and I used to see them occasionally at the puestos 

 or substations, where I was told they served the double 

 purpose of protecting the poultry from birds of prey (?), and 

 that of watch-dogs, raising an alarm on the approach of 

 strangers. In the summer of 1901-2, I again brought 

 three young birds to the Yngleses head-station, where they 

 became very tame. On attaining the power of flight their 

 habit was to absent themselves during- the day, returning at 

 sundown, their favourite roosting-place being the flat tops of 

 sundry orange-trees in my garden, which I had ultimately 

 to protect by various bamboos with sharpened points. One 

 evening I hurried out of the office to welcome some visitors 

 arriving by special '"galera''' from Dolores; and as th^ 



