28 THE BOOK OF BIRDS 



extraordinary things. My friend of the pampas, whose 

 words I have quoted, saw "a large piece of an earthen- 

 ware bottle " taken out of the crop of a hen-bird killed on 

 an English-owned estancia. And on another occasion, he 

 was just too late to prevent a pet Rhea from swallowing 

 half a handful of inch nails which a carpenter had left 

 lying about on the ground. 



