In its
habits it was both eagle and vulture, as it fed on dead flesh, and was
also a hunter and killer of animals and birds, especially of the
weakly and young. A somewhat destructive creature to poultry and young
sucking lambs and pigs. Its feeding habits were, in fact, very like
those of the raven, and its voice, too, was raven-like, or rather like
that of the carrion-crow at his loudest and harshest. Considering the
character of this big rapacious bird, the _Polyborus tharus_ of
naturalists and the _carancho_ of the natives, it may seem strange
that a pair were allowed to nest and live for years in our plantation,
but in those days people were singularly tolerant not only of
injurious birds and beasts but even of beings of their own species
of predaceous habits.
On the outskirts of our old peach orchard, described in a former
chapter, there was a solitary tree of a somewhat singular shape,
standing about forty yards from the others on the edge of a piece of
waste weedy land. It was a big old tree like the others, and had a
smooth round trunk standing about fourteen feet high and throwing out
branches all round, so that its upper part had the shape of an open
inverted umbrella. And in the convenient hollow formed by the circle
of branches the _caranchos_ had built their huge nest, composed of
sticks, lumps of turf, dry bones of sheep and other animals, pieces
of rope and raw hide, and any other object they could carry.
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