CHAPTER V
ASPECTS OF THE PLAIN

Appearance of a green level land--Cardoon and giant thistles--Villages
of the _vizcacha_, a large burrowing rodent--Groves and plantations
seen like islands on the wide level plains--Trees planted by the early
colonists--Decline of the colonists from an agricultural to a pastoral
people--Houses as part of the landscape--Flesh diet of the gauchos--
Summer change in the aspect of the plain--The water-like mirage--The
giant thistle and a "thistle year"--Fear of fires--An incident at a
fire--The _pampero_, or south-west wind, and the fall of the thistles
--Thistle-down and thistle-seed as food for animals--A great pampero
storm--Big hailstones--Damage caused by hail--Zango, an old horse,
killed--Zango and his master


CHAPTER VI
SOME BIRD ADVENTURES

Visit to a river on the pampas--A first long walk--Water-fowl--My
first sight of flamingoes--A great dove visitation--Strange tameness
of the birds--Vain attempts at putting salt on their tails--An ethical
question: When is a lie not a lie?--The _carancho_, a vulture-eagle--
Our pair of _caranchos_--Their nest in a peach tree--I am ambitious to
take their eggs--The birds' crimes--I am driven off by the birds--The
nest pulled down