her bird in the country: indeed, it is nearly the
only bird in South America which I have observed to take its stand
for the purpose of singing. The song may be compared to that of the
Sedge warbler, but is more powerful; some harsh notes and some very
high ones, being mingled with a pleasant warbling. It is heard only
during the spring. At other times its cry is harsh and far from
harmonious. Near Maldonado these birds were tame and bold; they
constantly attended the country houses in numbers, to pick the meat
which was hung up on the posts or walls: if any other small bird
joined the feast, the Calandria soon chased it away. On the wide
uninhabited plains of Patagonia another closely allied species, O.
Patagonica of d'Orbigny, which frequents the valleys clothed with
spiny bushes, is a wilder bird, and has a slightly different tone
of voice. It appears to me a curious circumstance, as showing the
fine shades of difference in habits, that judging from this latter
respect alone, when I first saw this second species, I thought it
was different from the Maldonado kind. Having afterwards procured a
specimen, and comparing the two without particular care, they
appeared so very similar, that I changed my opinion; but now Mr.
Gould says that they are certainly distinct; a conclusion in
conformity with the trifling difference of habit, of which,
however, he was not aware.
The number, tameness, and disgusting habits of the carrion-feeding
hawks of South America make them pre-eminently striking to any one
accustomed only to the birds of Northern Europe. In this list may
be included four species of the Caracara or Polyborus, the Turkey
buzzard, the Gallinazo, and the Condor. The Caracaras are, from
their structure, placed among the eagles: we shall soon see how ill
they become so high a rank. In their habits they well supply the
place of our carrion-crows, magpies, and ravens; a tribe of birds
widely distributed over the rest of the world, but entirely absent
in South America. To begin with the Polyborus Brasiliensis: this is
a common bird, and has a wide geographical range; it is most
numerous on the grassy savannahs of La Plata (where it goes by the
name of Carrancha), and is far from unfrequent throughout the
sterile plains of Patagonia. In the desert between the rivers Negro
and Colorado, numbers constantly attend the line of road to devour
the carcasses of the exhausted animals which chance to perish from
fatigue and thir
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