BIRDS. 
9 
“ scarlet and cochineal red,”* and the iris dark-coloured. D’Orbigny describes 
the iris as being bright scarlet; whilst Azara says it is “jaune leger.” Is this 
difference owing to the sex and age, as certainly is the case with the condors ? 
As a considerable degree of confusion has prevailed in the synonyms of this 
and the foregoing species, caused apparently by a doubt to which of them 
Molina applied the name of Jote, I would wish to call attention to the fact, that 
at the present time the C. aura in Chile goes by the name of Jote. Moreover, 
I think Molina’s description by itself might have decided the question ; he says, 
the head of the Vultur jota is naked, and covered only with a wrinkled and 
reddish (roxiza) skin. 
Family — FALCQNIDiE. 
Sub-Fam. POLYBORIM, Swains . 
(CaracarideB, D’Orbigny.) 
Polyborus Brasiliensis. Swains. 
Polyborus vulgaris, Vieillot. 
Falco Brasiliensis Auctorum ; Oaracara of Azara ; Tharu of Molina ; and Carrancha of the inhabitants of 
La Plata. 
This is one of the commonest birds in South America, and has a wide geographi- 
cal range. It is found in Mexico and in the West Indies. It is also, according 
to M. Audubon, an occasional visitant to the Floridas ; it takes its name from 
Brazil, but is no where so common as on the grassy savannahs of La Plata. 
It generally follows man, but is sometimes found even on the most desert plains 
of Patagonia : in the northern part of that region, numbers constantly attended 
the line of road between the Rio Negro and the Colorado, to devour the carcasses 
of the animals which chanced to perish from fatigue. Although abundant on the 
open plains of this eastern portion of the continent, and likewise on the rocky 
and barren shores of the Pacific, nevertheless it inhabits the borders of the damp and 
impervious forests of Tierra del Fuego and of the broken coast of West Patagonia, 
even as far south as Cape Horn. The Carranchas (as the Polyborus Prasiliensis 
is called in La Plata) together with the P. chimango |, attend in great numbers 
the estancias and slaughtering houses in the neighbourhood of the Plata. If an 
* In this work, whenever the particular name of any colour is given, or it is placed within commas, it 
implies, that it is taken from comparison with Patrick Syme’s edition of Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours. 
t Milvago Chimango of this work. 
C 
