290 Sydney Porter—Notes from South America


obtain but was not successful. It is the most desirable of the

Shovelers.


I had long desired to possess some Screamers, but, never having been

able to purchase any in Europe, one of my main objects in coming to

the Argentine was to try to obtain some. I felt very elated when I was

promised two pairs of these birds by Dr. Orfila but, after being warned

that Argentine promises seldom materialized, I refrained from getting

too enthusiastic. True to tradition there was the usual last minute

hitch and I was unable to obtain them. I rushed back to the bird shop

in the Sarmiento where I had purchased a few birds and asked them

if they could get me a few “ chajas ”, which is the Argentine name for

them, and is pronounced “ Shacar ” after their cry, which is said to

sound like the vernacular for “ Come back The dealer promised to

do his best in the short time and in a couple of days he obtained five

birds, three young ones and two adults, and although they were quite

tame they were wild caught birds. They were kept for me by the dealer

in a room with five Rheas which I had previously purchased. Here

they were kept for a week before I left for Rosario, a city some good way

up the Parana River. I found out afterwards that the wretched birds

had only been given alfalfa, which is a kind of lucerne, and soaked

bread. Of course being only freshly caught and grazers, they refused

the bread and as the alfalfa was very quickly eaten by the Rheas, the

birds were, by the time I was ready to go, practically starved to death.

I did not see the birds put on the train but when I arrived at Rosario,

a long journey from Buenos Aires, 1 could see that they were dying. We

were taken by the shipping agent of the “ Royal Mail ” onto the docks

and, on his promising to get a launch to transport us to the ship which

lay some way down the river, we settled down on the quay to await its

arrival.


To cut a long story short, we were just dumped on the wharf and

left to our fate. For a whole day my wretched birds boiled in the blazing

sun on the open quay. I was nearly frantic. I must have ’phoned up

at least a hundred times to the agent and used language, for which

had the authorities known English I should doubtless have been

arrested ! At last I managed to get hold of a motor and found the office

in the city and I refused to move until a launch was found. By this time



