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Show 68 MALDONADO. 1832-3. always so call them. It is a curious circumstance that, when crying out they throw their heads upwards and backwards, after the ~arne manner as the Carrancha. They build on the rocky cliffs of the sea-coast, but ~nl! in ~he small islets, and not in the two main islands. Thts IS a smgular precaution in so tame and fearless a bird. The sealers say that the flesh of these birds when cooked, is quite white, and very good eating. We have now only to mention the turkey-buzzard ( Vultur au;a), and the Ga:llinazo. The former is found wherever the country is moderately damp, from Cape Horn to North America. Differently from the Polyborus Braziliensis and Chimango, it has found its way to the Falkland Islands. The turkey-buzzard is a solitary bird, or at most goes in pairs. It may at once be recognised from a long distance, by its lofty, soaring, and most elegant flight. It is well known to be a true carrion feeder. On the west coast of Patagonia, among the thickly-wooded islets and broken land, it lives exclusively on what the sea throws up, and on the carcasses of dead seals. Wherever these animals are congregated on the rocks, there the vultures may be seen. The Gallinazo ( Cathm·tes atmtus) has a different range from the last species, as it never occurs to the southward of lat. 41°. Azara states that there existed a tradition that these birds, at the time of the conquest, were not to be found near Monte Video, but that they subsequently followed the inhabitants from more northern districts. At the present day they are numerous in the valley of the Colorado, which is three hundred miles due south of Monte Video. It seems probable that this additional migration has happened since the time of Azara. The Gallinazo generally prefers a humid climate, or rather the neighbourhood of fresh water; hence it is extremely abundant in Brazil and La Plata, while it is never found on the desert and arid plains of Northern Patagonia, excepting near some stream. These birds frequent the whole Pampas to the foot of the Cordillera, but I never saw or heard of one in Chile: in Peru they arc !)reserved as 1832-3. CAltlUON HAWKS. 6!) scavengers. These vultures certain! for they seem to have pl . y ~ay be called gregarious b easure m society a d ' rought together by the tt t' ' n are not solely fi a rae IOn of a com a ne day a flock may often b b . mon prey. On each bird wheeling round de o sened .at a great height, . . an round Witho t 1 . wmgs, m the most graceful evoluti . ~ c osmg its for sport-sake or perh . ons. This IS clearly done ' aps IS conn t d · 1 · monial alliances. ec e Wit 1 their matri-th I havde now mentioned all the carri.O n-feeders . e con or, an account of which will ' excepting Introduced when we visit be more appropriately habits than the plains of L· ap~otuntry more congenial to its I b a a a. n a road band of sand-hill k . guna del Potrero from th h oc s whiCh separate the La-f e s ores of the Plat t th d' o a few miles from M ld d a, a e Istance . 'fi a ona o, I found VItri ed, siliceous tubes ·h· h a group of those have been formed by { wht I~ are g~nerally supposed to Tl Ig nma enterma th 1 1ese tubes resemble in ever 0 . o e oose sand. in Cumberland, described in ~h partiCular. those from Drigg, The sand-hillocks of M ld de Geologi~al Transactions.* . a ona o, not bemg p t t d b vegetatiOn, are constant! h . . ro ec e y this cause the tube . y cd angmg thmr position. From s proJecte above the s £ rous fragments lying h ur ace; and nume-b near, s owed that th h d c een buried to a greater d th F ey a 10rmerly perpendicularly. by k~p . . our sets entered the sand them two feet de ~or dmg with my hands I traced one of ep ' an some fra t 1 · . had belonged to th gmen s w uch evidently e same tube when add d t h part, measured five feet th . '' e o t e other whole was nearly equal ~eeh mches. The diameter of the originally it extended t~ an t l erefore we must suppose that sions are however small a muc l greater depth. These dimenfrom Drigg, one of which :ompared to those of the tubes than thirty feet. as traced to a depth of not less '"fh eh m. ternal surface is completely vitrified smoot . A II f , glossy, and sma ragment examined under the micro- * G eo 1o g. 'fr ansact., vol. ii ., p. 528. |