184 S. CRUZ, PATAGONIA. [chap. ix. 



horseback to the entrance, and thus enclose them : for when this 

 bird has not space to run, it cannot give its body sufficient mo- 

 mentum to rise from the ground. The second method is to mark 

 the trees in which, frequently to the number of five or six toge- 

 ther, they roost, 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 T saw brought in, had been tied 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 appeared in pretty good 

 health.* The Chileno countrymen assert that the condor will 

 live, and retain its vigour, between five and six weeks without 

 eating : I cannot answer for the truth of this, but it is a cruel ex- 

 periment, which very likely has been tried. 



When an animal is killed in the country, it is well known that 

 the condors, like other carrion-vultures, soon gain intelligence of 

 it, and congregate in an inexplicable manner. In most cases it 

 must not be overlooked, that the birds have discovered their 

 prey, and have picked the skeleton clean, before the flesh is in 

 the least degree tainted. Remembering the experiments of M. 

 Audubon, on the little smelling powers of carrion-hawks, I tried 

 in the above-mentioned garden the following experiment : the 

 condors were tied, each by a rope, in a long row at the bottom 

 of a wall ; and having folded up a piece of meat in white paper, 

 I walked backwards and forwards, carrying it in my hand at the 

 distance of about three yards from them, but no notice whatever 

 was taken. I then threw it on the ground, within one yard of 

 an old male bird ; he looked at it for a moment with attention, 

 but then regarded it no more. With a stick I pushed it closer 

 and closer, until at last he touched it with his beak ; the paper 

 was then instantly torn off with fury, and at the same moment, 

 every bird in the long row began struggling and flapping its 



* I noticed that several hours before any one of the condors died, all the 

 lice, with which it was infested, crawled to the outside feathers. I was 

 assured that this always happened. 



