The Crested Screamer. 231 



p.t the time, while vivid flashes of lightning lit the 

 black cloud overhead at short intervals. I watched 

 their flight and listened to their notes, till suddenly 

 as they made a wide sweep upwards they dis- 

 appeared in the cloud, and at the same moment 

 their voices became muffled, and seemed to come 

 from an immense distance. The cloud continued 

 emitting sharp flashes of lightning, but the birds 

 never reappeared, and after six or seven minutes 

 once more their notes sounded loud and clear above 

 the muttering thunder. I suppose they had passed 

 through the cloud into the clear atmosphere above 

 it, but I was extremely surprised at their fearless- 

 ness ; for as a rule when soaring birds see a storm 

 coming they get out of its way, flying before it or 

 stooping to the earth to seek shelter of some kind, 

 for most living things appear to have a wholesome 

 dread of thunder and lightning. 



When taken young the chakar becomes very 

 tame and attached to man, showing no inclination 

 to go back to a wild life. There was one kept at an 

 estancia called Mangrullos, on the western frontier 

 of Buenos Ayres, and the people of the house gave 

 me a very curious account of it. The bird was a 

 male, and had been reared by a soldier's wife at a 

 frontier outpost called La Bsperanza, about twenty- 

 five miles from Mangrullos. Four years before I 

 saw the bird the Indians had invaded the frontier, 

 destroying the Esperanza settlement and all the 

 estancias for some leagues around. For some 

 weeks after the invasion the chakar wandered about 

 the country, visiting all the ruined estancias, appa- 

 rently in quest of human beings, and on arriving 



