[309.] MILVAGO CHIMANGO (Vieill.).
(CHIMANGO CARRION-HAWK.)
Milvago chimango, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 122; Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 40 (Chupat), et p. 188 (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 398 (Centr. Patagonia); Gibson, Ibis, 1879, p. 420 (Buenos Ayres); Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 111 (Entrerios); Withington, Ibis, 1888, p. 470 (Lomas de Zamora). Ibycter chimango, Sharpe, Cat. B. i. p. 41. Milvago pezoporus, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 434 (La Plata).
Description.—Above reddish brown, with ashy edgings to the feathers; rump greyish white; greater wing-coverts white, with slight brown cross bars; primaries dark brown, externally at their bases freckled with grey; inner webs at their bases white; tail greyish white, with numerous freckles and narrow bands of brownish grey: beneath grey, deeply tinged with rufous on the throat and breast; crissum nearly white; under wing-coverts deep rufous; bill pale yellowish; feet olive: whole length 15·0 inches, wing 11·0, tail 6·5. Female similar.
Hab. Southern half of South America.
Azara says of the Carancho (Polyborus tharus):—“All methods of subsistence are known to this bird: it pries into, understands, and takes advantage of everything.” These words apply better to the Chimango, which has probably the largest bill of fare of any bird, and has grafted on to its own peculiar manner of life the habits of twenty diverse species. By turns it is a falcon, a vulture, an insect-eater, and a vegetable-eater. On the same day you will see one bird in violent hawk-like pursuit of its living prey, with all the instincts of rapine hot within it, and another less ambitious individual engaged in laboriously tearing at an old cast-off shoe, uttering mournful notes the while, but probably more concerned at the tenacity of the material than at its indigestibility.
A species so cosmopolitan in its tastes might have had a whole volume to itself in England; being only a poor foreigner, it has had no more than a few unfriendly paragraphs bestowed upon it. For it happens to be a member of that South-American subfamily of which even grave naturalists have spoken slightingly, calling them vile, cowardly, contemptible birds; and the Chimango is nearly least of them all—a sort of poor relation and hanger on of a family already looked upon as bankrupt and disreputable. Despite this evil reputation, few species are more deserving of careful study; for throughout an extensive portion of South America it is the commonest bird we know; and when we consider how closely connected are the lives of all living creatures by means of their interlacing relations, so that the predominance of any one kind, however innocuous, necessarily causes the modification, or extinction even, of surrounding species, we are better able to appreciate the importance of this despised fowl in the natural polity. Add to this its protean habits, and then, however poor a creature our bird may seem, and deserving of strange-sounding epithets from an ethical point of view, I do not know where the naturalist will find a more interesting one.
The Chimango has not an engaging appearance. In size and figure it much resembles the Hen-harrier, and the plumage is uniformly of a light sandy brown colour; the shanks are slender, claws weak, and beak so slightly hooked that it seems like the merest apology of the Falcon’s tearing weapon. It has an easy loitering flight, and when on the wing does not appear to have an object in view, like the Hawk, but wanders and prowls about here and there, and when it spies another bird it flies after him to see if he has food in his eye. When one finds something to eat the others try to deprive him of it, pursuing him with great determination all over the place; if the foremost pursuer flags, a fresh bird takes its place, until the object of so much contention—perhaps after all only a bit of skin or bone—is dropped to the ground, to be instantly snatched up by some bird in the tail of the chase; and he in turn becomes the pursued of all the others. This continues till one grows tired and leaves off watching them without seeing the result. They are loquacious and sociable, frequently congregating in loose companies of thirty or forty individuals, when they spend several hours every day in spirited exercises, soaring about like Martins, performing endless evolutions, and joining in aerial mock battles. When tired of these pastimes they all settle down again, to remain for an hour or so perched on the topmost boughs of trees or other elevations; and at intervals one bird utters a very long leisurely chant, with a falling inflection, followed by a series of short notes, all the other birds joining in chorus and uttering short notes in time with those of their soloist or precentor. The nest is built on trees or rushes in swamps, or on the ground amongst grass and thistles. The eggs are three or four in number, nearly spherical, blotched with deep red on a white or creamy ground; sometimes the whole egg is marbled with red; but there are endless varieties. It is easy to find the nest, and becomes easier when there are young birds, for the parent when out foraging invariably returns to her young uttering long mournful notes, so that one has only to listen and mark the spot where it alights. After visiting a nest I have always found the young birds soon disappear, and as the old birds vanish also I believe that the Chimango removes its young when the nest has been discovered—a rare habit with birds.
Chimangos abound most in settled districts, but a prospect of food will quickly bring numbers together even in the most solitary places. On the desert pampas, where hunters, Indian and European, have a great fancy for burning the dead grass, the moment the smoke of a distant fire is seen there the Chimangos fly to follow the conflagration. They are, at such times, strangely animated, dashing through clouds of smoke, feasting amongst the hot ashes on roasted cavies and other small mammals, and boldly pursuing the scorched fugitives from the flames.
At all times and in all places the Chimango is ever ready to pounce on the weak, the sickly, and the wounded. In other regions of the globe these doomed ones fall into the clutches of the true bird of prey; but the salutary office of executioner is so effectually performed by the Chimango and his congeners where these false Hawks abound, that the true Hawks have a much keener struggle to exist here. This circumstance has possibly served to make them swifter of wing, keener of sight, and bolder in attack than elsewhere. I have seen a Buzzard, which is not considered the bravest of the Hawks, turn quick as lightning on a Cayenne Lapwing, which was pursuing it, and grappling it bear it down to the ground and despatch it in a moment, though a hundred other Lapwings were uttering piercing screams above it. Yet this Plover is a large, powerful, fierce-tempered bird, and armed with sharp spurs on its wings. This is but one of numberless instances I have witnessed of the extreme strength and daring of our Hawks.