THE ARGENTINE PAMPAS. 369 



still lingers and niiugles delicioiisly with the various subdued tints of brown and 

 green around. 



" This tender tonality lasts but a very short time, the sun shooting up- 

 w^ards with a speed and force that at once completely transforms the picture ; 

 the scorching agencies of light revealing it in its true parched colours and 

 reducing it to a burning arch above, and a scorching and featureless flat below. 

 The fresh, rippling ocean turns into a w^eary wilderness, staring up at a breatbkss, 

 pitiless sky." * 



Nor are the pampas regions so destitute of animal life and motion as is commonly 

 supposed. The same observer speaks of the stir of bird and insect life that 

 accompanies the waking up of the great plain at dawn. " The air is full of 

 buzzing and chirping and of the flutter of wings. So thickly is the pampa 

 peopled with birds that it quite produces the effect of an open-air aviary. Brilliant 

 little creatures with red or yellow breasts, zorzd/s and cardinals, magpies and 

 oven-birds dart in and out of the grass and bushes in every direction, while in 

 the higher regions numerous hawks and kites hover ominously over these tempting 

 preserves. 



" All the feathered tril e are singularly fearless and unconcerned at one's 

 approach, the only exception being the well-known abomination of the sportsman 

 in the jDampa, the spur- winged plover. This insufferable creature, who, as 

 Darwin somewhere says of him, appears to hate mankind, swarms all over the 

 prairie, and pursues one with a loud and discordant cry, which is exactly 

 rendered by his common name of ieru-fcro. He is really a very handsome bird, 

 with glossy black and lavender plumage tipped with green and purple, but, like 

 much lovelier beings one has occasionally met with, his beauty is quite marred 

 by his harsh, unmusical voice and forward ways. He is both the spy and the 

 scold of the pampa. Being too worthless in himself to stand in danger of 

 being shot, his one idea seems to be to spoil sport. As soon as he gets sight of 

 you, he sets up his shrill wearying note and follows j'ou pertinaciously about, of 

 course warning all the game aiound of your approach." f 



A still greater pest is the bicho Colorado, a villainous little bright red insect, 

 no bigger than a pin's head, whose bite causes an intolerable irritation, which 

 lasts for days together. But with the exception of these plaguy litile creatures 

 and of the clouds of mosquitoes swarming about all the l.igoons, the pampas 

 regions are singularly free from noxious vermin of all kinds. The only really 

 venomous animals appear to be the dreaded tarantula and the still more dreaded 

 vihora do la criiz. a deadly species of viper. 



On the other hand, game abounds to an extraordinary extent in some districts 

 verging on the forest zone. Even in the " campo," as the steppe lands are called 

 in the province of Buenos Aj'res, some good shooting is still afforded by such 

 aquatic birds as the swan, goose, flamingo, duck, grebe, and w'ater-hen, besides 

 deer, the Pat.igonian hare, snipe, and partridge. The partridge is somewhat 



* The Great Silver River, p. 273. f The Great Stiver Rtvcr,, p. 275. 



