8 BIRDS OF TIERRA DEL FUEGO 



The Chimango is another great personality, and one entering 

 very much into the daily life of man, not only in uninhabited 

 regions but more particularly in settlements. 



Plentiful as it is, I came away without a skin. I shot one 

 with the "410 at Rio McClelland Settlement, but the nostril was 

 so much damaged that I decided to procure a better specimen, 

 and ultimately did not do so. 



The Chimango is so well known and has been so often 

 described by previous observers that it leaves me no ground 

 to record anything original of its life habits. 



Azara, D'Orbigny, Darwin, and others have wi'itten on it at 

 considerable length. 



It is the commonest of the birds of prey, yet hardly a bird 

 of prey in the accepted sense, as it is entirely a scavenger 

 except for insects. There are always some to be seen in 

 settlements. It also frequents uninhabited regions — open 

 country, the outskirts of forests, and the sea shore where 

 I have seen as many as twenty or thirty together. For one of 

 its kind, it is tame and unusually gentle. In man it recognizes 

 a useful friend. Its petulant " C-h-i-i-i" is almost as familiar a 

 sound in settlements as the cackling of the poultry whose food 

 it shares under protest from them. 



Of it and the nearly-allied Chimachima, Azara tersely 

 observes that : — they differ from the Caracard " en no embestir 

 d ningun pdxaro ni animal, sino quando mucho a algun 

 Ratoncito, y lo dudo. Yuelan con mas descanso, se suelen 

 polvorizar como las Gallinas, prefieren para posarse los arboles 

 secarrones, y d ^stos los montoncitos de tierra 6 piedras, y no 

 tienen pelada la frente ni el buche." 



" Comme le Canicard," says D'Orbign}^, " 11 s'attache a 

 I'homme dans ses etablissements, dans ses migrations, dans ses 

 voyages ; il a le vol du Cardcara, ses manieres vives et bruyantes, 

 son esprit querelleur ; mais ici, differant de son modele, il ne 

 tourmente, n'attaque, ne combat que les oiseaux de son esp^ce ; 

 et, sans doute en raison du sentiment de sa faiblesse, ne poursuit 



