BELONOPTERUS CHILENSIS 117 



south of its range as defined by him — " Colombia and Guiana to 

 Central and Southern Brazil." 



The Tero-Tero has a personality which at once claims 

 recognition — and thereafter constant execration. It arrives in 

 the island on the first break-up of winter. Here and there 

 I remarked a pair in the early days of September. These birds 

 were then comparatively quiet and subdued in tone : later, when 

 plentiful, they became tyrants. Their special charge appears 

 to be to harrass man. Walk or ride where you will in the open 

 lowlands, and they are coming for you or overhead, their harsh 

 querulous screams ever audible — even in bed at nights. After 

 accompanying one for a time, they sheer off and settle at a 

 distance, there to scream out a tell-tale warning, and then 

 perhaps again return to annoy one more closely. 



Partly to pay off old scores, partly to experiment on them 

 as food, I once had an afternoon's sport at their expense. Shoot- 

 ing them proved the more satisfactory operation. They have 

 ample breasts, but the flesh is hard and strong-flavoured. During 

 spring and summer they scatter all over the open lowlands in 

 pairs, to breed. In autumn it proved a novel spectacle to see 

 them in flocks of two hundred or so, preparatory to leaving 

 the island. The proportion sum then suggested itself: — ''* It 

 one pair of Tero-Tero's can make so much noise, how much 

 will a hundred pairs make ? " 



" Tero-tero " ! I hear them now, seven thousand miles 

 away ! 



" In many respects," says Darwin, " they resemble our 

 Peewits {Vanellus cristatics), and frequent generally in pairs, 

 open grass-land, and especially the neighbourhood of lakes. As 

 the Peewit takes its name from the sound of its voice, so does 

 the " Tero-Tero." While riding over the grassy plains, one is 

 constantly pursued by these birds, which appear to hate 

 mankind, and I am sure deserve to be hated, for their never 

 ceasing unvaried harsh screams. The stillness of the night is 

 often disturbed by them. To the sportsman they are most 



