722 BREAKING-IN OF COLTS. 



circling round them, — the birds, curiously enough, not attempt- 

 ing to tly, but trying to run away instead. The horseman 

 keeps on narrowing his circle, till he at last gets near enouglh 

 to drop the loop over a bird's head, when he whips it up, a 

 captive, though in no way injured — so that birds can thus be 

 caught alive. 



BREAKING-IN COLTS. 



Witness the operation of breaking-in a wild colt from 

 amidst a herd of a hundred or more. A Gaucho called the 

 dormador makes his appearance, dressed in a thin cotton shirt 

 secured by a scarf round the waist, and a coloured handker- 

 chief bound to his head, while his legs are guarded by a huge 

 pair of boots, armed with enormous spurs. There he stands, 

 with his lasso coiled up and thrown carelessly over his arm. 

 He advances towards the herd, followed by two mounted 

 Gauchos dressed in full costume. As the colts gallop round 

 the corral, into which they have been driven, with wild eyes 

 and waving manes, he selects one of them ; and whirling his 

 lasso lightly round, casts it over the animal's head, sinking 

 down at the same time on his left knee, and holding it with 

 both hands. No sooner does the colt feel the lasso than it 

 bounds into the air, and dashes off, the dormador sliding and 

 crouching along the ground, playing him, as a fisherman does 

 a large salmon, till he has separated him from the rest of the 

 herd. He then brings him into the centre of the corral, 

 plunging and rearing, with his tether much shortened. An- 

 other Gaucho throws his lasso on the ground under the colt's 

 fore-feet, and by an upward jerk tightens it round his legs. 

 At the same time the dormador lets his lasso out freely ; the 

 horse dashes out till it is brought to the ground by the other 

 lasso, with a shock sufficient, it would seem, to break every 



