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Show 220 PATAGONIA. April, 18~4. nest, but in the months of November and December lays two large white eggs on a shelf of bare rock. On the Patagonian coast I could not see any sort of nest among the cliffs, where the young ones were standing. It is said the young condors cannot fly for an entire year. At Concepcion, on the fifth of March (corresponding to our September), I saw a young bird, which, though in size little inferior to an old one, was completely covered by down like that of a gosling, but of a blackish colour. I feel sure this bird could not have used its wings for flight for many months. After the period when the young condors can fly, and apparently as well as the old birds, they yet remain both roosting at night on the same ledge, and hunting by day with their parents. Before, however, the young bird has the ruff round its neck turned white, it may often be seen hunting by itself. At the mouth of the St. Cruz, during part of April and May, a pair of old birds might be seen every day either perched on a certain ledge, or sailing about in company with a single young one, which latter though full fledged, had not its ruff white. I should think, especially when recollecting the state in which the Concepcion bird was on the previous month, that this young condor had not been hatched from an egg of that summer. As there were no other young birds, it seems proba1Jle that the condor only lays once in two years. These birds generally live by pairs; but among the inland basaltic cliffs of the St. Cruz, I found a spot, where scores most usually haunt. On coming suddenly to the brow of the precipice, it was a fine sight to see between twenty and thirty of these great birds start heavily from their resting-place, and wheel away in majestic circles. From the quantity of dung on the rocks, they must long have frequented this cliff, and probably they both roost and breed there. Having gorged themselves with carrion on the plains below, they retire to these favourite ledges, to digest their food. From these facts, the condor must to a certain April, 1834. ·CONDOR. 221 degree, like the gallinazo, be considered a gregarious bird. In this part of the country they live altogether on the guanacoes, which either have died a natural death, or, as more commonly happens, have been killed by the pumas. I believe, from what I saw in Patagonia, that they do not on ordinary occasions extend their daily excursions to any great distance from their regular sleeping-places. . The condors may oftentimes be seen at a great height, soaring over a certain spot in the most graceful spires and circles. On some occasions I am sure that they do this for sport, but on others, the Chileno countrymen tell you that they are watching a dying animal, or the puma devouring its prey. If the condors glide down, and then suddenly all rise together, the Chileno knows that it is the puma which, watching the carcass, has sprung out to drive away the robbers. Besides feeding on carrion, the condors will frequently attack young goats and lambs. Hence the shepherd dogs are trained, the moment the enemy passes over, to run out, and looking upwards, to bark violently. The Chilenos destroy and catch numbers. Two methods are used; one is to place a carcass within an enclosure of sticks on a level piece of ground, and when the condors are gorged, to · gallop up on horseback to the entrance, and thus enclose them: for when this bird has not space to run, it cannot give its body sufficient momentum to rise from the ground. The second method is to mark the trees in which, frequently to the number of five or six, they roost together, and then at night to climb up and noose them. They are such heavy sleepers, as I have myself witnessed, that this is not a difficult task. At Valparaiso, I have seen a living condor sold for sixpence, but the common price is eight or ten shillings. One which I saw brought in, had been lashed with rope, and was much injured ; yet, the moment the line was cut by which its bill was secured, although surrounded by people, it began ravenously to tear a piece of carrion. In a garden at the same place, between twenty and thirty were kept alive. They were fed only once a week, but they |