Raptores of South America. 355 



in submission to the law which regulates every sentient being, they 

 appear to become as loving as they are at other times fierce, and 

 share with each other in the toil of rearing their nest ; but from the 

 moment the young are sufficiently strong to seek their own food, the 

 couple separate, and appear as selfish and ferocious as before. The 

 more carnivorous they are in their habits, the less does their mode 

 of life dispose them to society ; and on no occasion are they seen to 

 live together during greater part of the year, as habitually takes 

 place with many of the Incessores, the Gallinaceee, Grallatores, and 

 the Palmipedes. 



Another kind of union, purely fortuitous, takes place in the im- 

 mense savannahs of America. The inhabitants are accustomed to 

 set fire to the fields every year, in order to renew the herbage. This 

 conflagration proves destructive to a numerous host of peaceable crea- 

 tures, which believe themselves secure in their rich plains, from the 

 destructive talons of their mortal enemies. Small mammiferse, 

 reptiles, and innumerable insects flee in all haste, from these tor- 

 rents of flame, beyond which myriads of rapacious birds, whose 

 habits usually keep them remote from each other, but which a com- 

 mon instinct of voracity brings together for a short time on this theatre 

 of destruction, are eagerly on the watch. The caracaras, in particular, 

 more numerous, clamorous, and impatient than their companions, dart 

 into the midst of the crackling flames andcloudsof dense smoke, while 

 the Buzzards, intimidated by the fire which the caracaras disregard, 

 hover slowly round it in search of their prey, which is often auda- 

 ciously carried off by the light falcon of more rapid flight, at the very 

 moment they are about to seize it. Nothing can be more remarkable 

 than this spontaneous assemblage of birds, advancing before the ra- 

 pid progress of the flames, and eagerly disputing for some feeble vic- 

 tim, which already subdued and alarmed, escapes from one calami- 

 ty only to be overwhelmed by another. When the fire has ceased, 

 all the birds disperse, and each commences for itself a pursuit more 

 easily followed but not less destructive. They run over the burned 

 surface while yet covered with ashes, in order to seek out the half- 

 burned carcases of reptiles and small mammalia, which were unable 

 to escape from the flames ; but now, resuming their natural character, 

 they shun the approach of their kind, carrying off their prey in their 

 talons, in order to devour it in some solitary spot, and even 

 then, although entirely removed from their companions, they are 

 seen to look around them from time to time with suspicion and fear, 

 lest others should come to share their bloody feast, — an apprehen- 

 sion from which they are not freed till it be wholly consumed. 



In a country where the greater number of birds of prey feed on rep- 



