THE BRASILIAN CARACARA EAGLE. 301 



The range of this fine bird extends over a consider- 

 able part of South America. Jacquin's specimen was 

 from the Island of Aruba, on the coast of Venezuela; 

 and M. Cuvier states it to be the most common Bird of 

 Prey in Brasil and Paraguay. In the former country, 

 according to the Prince of Neuwied, it is most abundant 

 in the south and east; M. Spix's specimens, on the 

 contrary, were obtained from the more northern pro- 

 vinces. D'Azara speaks of it as less numerous on the 

 Rio de la Plata than in Paraguay, where it is almost 

 equal in number to all the other Birds of Prey put 

 together. But this is by no means its southern limit, 

 for it occurs in the list of animals collected by Captain 

 King in the Straits of Magellan, published in the third 

 volume of the Zoological Journal. It builds its nest, 

 according to D'Azara, on the tops of trees, and in pre- 

 ference on those which are most infested with climbing- 

 shrubs. Where such are not to be found it selects a 

 bushy thicket, in which it forms a spacious aerie of 

 sticks and twining branches laid nearly flat, and lined 

 with a thick layer of hair inartificially disposed. The 

 female lays in August, September, or October, two 

 eggs, much pointed at one extremity, and dotted and 

 spotted with crimson on a ground of brownish red. 



In its food the Caracara is by no means nice. It 

 feeds, says D'Azara, on all the animals that are de- 

 voured by vultures, buzzards, hawks, falcons, and 

 insectivorous birds ; nothing comes amiss to it ; it 

 watches, seizes, and devours every thing. Carrion, 

 toads, frogs, worms, snails, lizards, grubs, grasshoppers, 

 winged ants, &c. form a part of its subsistence. It 

 will also devour snakes and flies, and not only searches 

 the hides of horned cattle for insects, but even turns 

 up the ground in quest of worms. Two of M. Spix's 

 specimens were shot in the act of extracting insects 



