1920.] Cape San Antonio, Buenos xiyres. 5 



ponderous vehicle with its eight horses swung iuto position 

 in the patio, I was just in time to see tlie leading postilion 

 nearly swept from his saddle by a low-flying Chaja entering 

 from the southern approach — man and bird were equally 

 startled by the encounter, only avoided by the latter swerv- 

 ing upwards and the former ducking to his horse's neck ; 

 wliilst the alert stage-conductor (perched high on his 

 driving-seat) shouted, laughingly, " Don't be alarmed, man, 

 it's only some of Don Ernesto's jokes ! ■" The birds 

 alluded to suddenly developed their full cry at the begin- 

 ning of February without my having heard any preliminary 

 attempts ; they also occasionally at night gave utterance to 

 a muffled bark-like note. The trio emancipated themselves 

 for good in the spring of 1903. 



The rare habit of perching, which I mentioned in my former 

 pajjci', has seldom been observed during these forty years. 

 The roosting-place of the above tame birds is one instance ; 

 and to the [jresence of these in the garden I attribute the 

 fact that on one occasion five others alighted on the top of 

 an adjacent lofty eucalyptus tree, where they maintained 

 their position with considerable difficulty. I also saw 

 one balanced on an iron landmark, whilst its mace sat close 

 by on the post of a fence. Lastly, on putting up a flock 

 of some forty from the mainland in 1913, one-half of them 

 arrested their flight across the waste of waters to perch on 

 the posts of a nearly submerged fence. 



The four years' drought of 1908-11 had necessarily a very 

 serious effect upon this species and very few remained in the 

 district, whilst they became so emaciated and weak that I 

 was told it had been possible by riding up rapidly and dis- 

 mounting to seize them before they could get under weigh. 

 I am glad to say that with the occurrence of the subsequent 

 flood anil normal seasons they reappeared again in their 

 former numbers. So late as 25 October, 1915, I chronicled 

 two fine flocks of about one hundred and fifty respectively, 

 " on localities characterised by an abundance of young grass, 

 Avhite clover, and another trefoil." 



There are two reasons why the Chaja is not persecuted as 



