COMMON CARRION HAWKL 65 



or creamy ground; sometimes the whole egg is 

 marbled with red ; but there are endless varieties. 

 It is easy to find the nest, and becomes easier when 

 there are young birds, for the parent when out 

 foraging invariably returns to her young uttering 

 long mournful notes, so that one has only to listen 

 and mark the spot where it alights. After visiting 

 a nest I have always found the young birds soon 

 disappear, and as the old birds vanish also I believe 

 that the Chimango removes its young when the nest 

 has been discovered — a. rare habit with birds. 



Chimangos abound most in settled districts, but 

 a prospect of food will quickly bring numbers 

 together even in the rnost solitary places. On the 

 desert pampas, where hunters, Indian and Euro- 

 pean, have a great fancy for burning the dead grass, 

 the moment the smoke of a distant fire is seen there 

 the Chimangos fly to follow the conflagration. They 

 are at such times strangely animated, dashing 

 through clouds of smoke, feasting among the hot 

 ashes on roasted cavies and other small mammals, 

 and boldly pursuing the scorched fugitives from the 

 flames. 



At all times and in all places the Chimango is ever 

 ready to pounce on the weak, the sickly, and the 

 wounded. In other regions of the globe these 

 doomed ones fall into the clutches of the true bird 

 of prey ; but the salutary office of executioner is 

 so effectually performed by the Chimango and his 

 congeners where these false Hawks abound, that the 

 true Hawks have a much keener struggle to exist 



E II 



