The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-11

pin. but 1t exists In such numbers that the damage is enormous. It attacks the sugar cane and cotton. It bites it's way into the oranges and it crawls into the houses. It likes to work in the dark and no place Is safe from Y. In some sec tions the billposts rest in bowls of water or on panes of glass coated with vaseline to keep the ants out, and am told that it is sometimes necessary to take the babies from their cradles and dip them in water to clean off the ants. The little insects are so small that they get into their mouths and nostrils, and there are reports of babies that have been killed by them. The Argentine ant has caused trouble In the United States. These ants have been carried by ships to our gulf coast and for a time there were so many In New Orleans that they became known as the New Orleans ant. They are also found in southern California.
 The animal life of Argentina does not compare in variety with that of the United States. The greater part of the country is treeless. and there are but few wild birds and wild beasts in com parison with some other parts of the world. l have seen condors in the An des. They are the highest birds that fly and their fayorite breeding places are two or three miles above the sea. They may often be seen among the snows and are also on exhibition in the zoologi- cal gardens of some of the South Amer ican capitals. I photographed a half dozen in the zoo at Lima. Peru, and it seemed to me they were about the uglles; birds in the whole aviary. Their heads and necks had no feathers, and they looked like the gigantic vultures that they are. The male condors have combs of bright red and there is a frill oi white feathers at the base of their long. skinny necks. The rest of the piumage is black. These birds are sometimes com- pared with the eagle, but they are noth- ing like eagles in appearance and hab- it's. They eat earrion, and if a llama or an alpaca lies dead in the mountains you may see them sweeping down upon the carcass. They will attack any of the animals of the high Andes especially if it Is sick or wounded; and the shepherds have to watch to keep them away from the sheep. When they find a carcass they gorge themselves, and it is when they are stupid from overeating that they are easily caught and killed.
 The condor is not seen on the pampas, although there are many vultures of other kinds there and in other parts of Ar gentina. The carancho makes one think of cross between vulture and hawk. It is a comparatively small bird of a dark brown color with a. light band across its wings The earancno Is one Of the pests of the pastoral districts. It not only eats carrion but it will attack the lambs and pick out their eyes. It makes me think of the kea, the famous sheep eating parrot of New Zealand. which has a way of fastening it's claws into the wool of a live sheep and then tearing a hole Into It's side to get at the kid neys. The kea instinctively knows just where the kidneys are located, and the hole which it cuts is as smooth as though it were done with a knife. The bird tears out the kidneys and Tat and then leaves the sheep to die. At times the government has offered a reward of 75 cents head for dead keas and as many as 750o0 have been killed in one year.
 About the most interesting of the large birds of Argentina is the rhea, or the South American ostrich. They are found in great numbers running over the pam pas and there are thousands of them in car windows and have watched them hunted Tn the desert, where they squat down and hide their heads in the sand.