62 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



little nearer and into the charmed circle, it would 

 make a sudden rapid dash and buffet the intruder 

 violently back to a proper distance, returning after- 

 wards to its own stand. 



CHIMANGO, OR COMMON CARRION 

 HAWK 



MOvago chimango 



Upper plumage reddish brown; greater wing-coverts white with 

 slight brown cross-bars ; tail greyish white, banded and freckled with 

 greyish brown. Under plumage grey, tinged with rufous on throat 

 and breast; length 15, wing 11, tail 6.5 inches. Sexes aUke. 



AzARA says of the Carancho {Polyborus tharus): 

 ** All methods of subsistence are known to this 

 bird : it pries into, understands, and takes advantage 

 of everything." These words apply better to the 

 Chimango, which has probably the largest bill of 

 fare of any bird, and has grafted on to its own 

 peculiar manner of life the habits of twenty diverse 

 species. By turns it is a Falcon, a Vulture, an insect- 

 eater, and a vegetable-eater. On the same day you 

 will see one bird in violent Hawk-like pursuit of -its 

 living prey, with all the instincts of rapine hot within 

 it, and another less ambitious individual engaged in 

 laboriously tearing at an old cast-off shoe, uttering 

 mournful notes the while, but probably more con- 

 cerned at the tenacity of the material than at its 

 indigestibility. 

 A species so cosmopolitan in its tastes might have 



