Our Birds of Prey. 125 
fruit and seeds, and the food contents of the stomach 
consist usually of such vegetable matter — the seeds of 
the various species of bird-vine (Loranthus) being 
largely represented. Though they are frequently met 
with among the trees along the banks of the rivers, they 
do not seem ever to settle on the ground, as their con- 
geners, the black caracara, so frequently do. 
The black caracaras (Ibydler ater) are much smaller 
birds, being from 16-17 inches in length. With the 
exception of a white bar at the base of the tail, they are 
of a black colour with a greenish gloss. The nostrils are 
quite round ; the bare sides of the face are of a bright 
orange red, and the legs' yellow. They are very com- 
monly met with on the bushy savannahs, and along the 
banks of the great rivers, especially on the sandy banks 
and ridges, where they alight to hunt for food. Ticks 
especially seem a favourite diet, and mixed up with 
these in their stomachs will generally be found varying 
quantities of hair from the bodies of the various wild 
animals from which they have picked the ticks. Seeds 
of different kinds, and more particularly the seeds of the 
bird-vine, furnish a considerable portion of their food. 
They are almost invariably met with in pairs. 
More common than either of the above, especially in 
the partially cleared lands on the coast, and along the 
bushy tra6ls on such savannah creeks as the Abary, are 
the chimachimas or white-headed caracaras (Milvago 
chimachima) . These birds are about of the same 
size as the last species, or slightly smaller. The head, 
neck, and entire under parts, are of a pale creamy or 
yellow white in the adult, the upper parts being brown 
with ashy margins to the feathers, while the tail is white 
