_Description._--Above dark brown with whitish mottlings; head blackish; wings and tail greyish white, with numerous greyish-brown cross bars and blackish tips: beneath dark brown, varied with white; throat and sides of head fulvous white; bill yellow, bluish at the base; cere orange; feet brown; claws black: whole length 20 inches, wing 15·5, tail 9·0. _Female_ similar. _Hab._ South America. This bird, which combines the raptorial instincts of the Eagle with the base carrion-feeding propensities of the Vulture, has already had so many biographers that it might seem superfluous to speak again at any great length of it; only it happens to be one of those very versatile species about which there is always something fresh to be said; and, besides, I do not altogether agree with the very ignoble character usually ascribed to it by travellers. It is, however, probable that it varies greatly in disposition and habits in different districts. In Patagonia I was surprised at its dejected appearance and skulking cowardly manner, so unlike the bird I had been accustomed to see on the pampas. I shot several, and they were all in a miserably poor condition and apparently half-starved. It struck me that in that cold sterile country, where prey is scarce, the Carancho is altogether out of place; for it there has to compete with Eagles and Vultures in large numbers; and these, it is almost needless to say, are, in their separate lines, stronger than the composite and less specialized Carancho. In Patagonia he is truly a "miserable bird," with a very frail hold on existence. How different on that illimitable grassy ocean further north, where he is the lord of the feathered race, for Eagles and Vultures, that require mountains and trees to breed and roost on, do not come there to set him aside; there the conditions are suited to him and have served to develop in him a wonderfully bold and savage spirit. When seen perched on a conical ant-hill, standing erect above the tall plumy grass, he has a fine, even a noble, appearance; but when flying he is not handsome, the wings being very bluntly rounded at the extremities and the flight low and ungraceful. The plumage is blackish in the adult, brown in the young. The sides of the head and breast are creamy white, the latter transversely marked with black spots. The crown is adorned with a crest or top-knot. The beak is much larger than in Eagles and Vultures, and of a dull blue colour; the cere and legs are bright yellow. The species ranges throughout South America, and from Paraguay northwards is called everywhere, I believe, "Caracara." South of Paraguay the Spanish name is "Carancho," possibly a corruption of "Keanché," the Puelche name for the allied _Milvago chimango_, in imitation of its peevish cry. The Indian name for the Carancho in these regions is _Trarú_ (from its harsh cry), misspelt _tharú_ by Molina.