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 thirst.