44 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



and to pursue and strike it down with its claws. 

 Mr. Gibson's account of its habits agrees with mine, 

 and he says that " it will raise any small bird time 

 after time, should the latter endeavour to conceal 

 itself in the grass, preferring, as it would seem, to 

 strike it on the wing." He further says : " Its 

 flight is low and rather rapid, while if its quarry 

 should double it loses no ground, for it turns some- 

 thing in the manner of a Tumbler Pigeon, going 

 rapidly head over heels in the most eccentric and 

 amusing fashion." 



Probably this Harrier has a partial migration, as 

 a great many are always seen travelling across the 

 pampas in the autumn and spring ; many individuals, 

 however, remain all the winter. 



The nest is made on the ground among long grass, 

 or in reed-beds in marshy places, and the eggs are 

 white, blotched with dark red. 



VOCIFEROUS HAWK 



Astttrina pucherani 



Above dark brown; upper tail-coverts fulvous, barred with brown; 

 wings chestnut barred and broadly tipped with black ; tail fulvous, 

 crossed with four black bars ; beneath pale ochraceous, barred with 

 rufous; bill black, feet yellow ; length 1 8 inches. Female larger. 



This brown-plumaged, short-winged, and exceed- 

 ingly vociferous Hawk is common ia the woods 

 along the shores of the Plata and its tributaries, and 

 is never found far removed from water. It perches 



