A Condor's Quill 7 



corners of the earth. While the existing stock lasts, Miss Blank may continue 

 to wear her silvery pinion, but if she lives within the border of the United 

 States let her cherish it carefully, for Federal law prohibits the importation of 

 Condor's feathers, as well as those of other wild birds; and with the enactment 

 of this statute no small part of the world's millinery mart was closed to Condor 

 quills! Let us hope that other nations will follow this example. 



Like most hunters whose pursuit of a certain animal leads them to a study 

 of its habits, this Mendoza slayer of Condors had acquired much information 

 concerning the object of his pursuit, and could relate many interesting 

 reminiscences of the chase. 



The latest South American guide book (and in most respects a very reliable 

 book it is) tells us that the Condor attacks "pigs, sheep, children and rarely a 



A CONDOR'S WING 

 This wing contains Thirty-five large quills, and measures 4 feet, 8 inches, from base to tip 



grown man," but our killer of thousands said that he had never known but one 

 to 'show fight.' This was a trapped bird which, supposing it to be dead, he 

 picked up by the neck, when the startled creature planted both feet on his 

 breast and beat him vigorously with its wings. Doubtless the bird's chief 

 object was escape, and if it had been given its freedom it no doubt would soon 

 have been in full flight. 



Although he had shot as many as one hundred and fourteen Condors in a 

 single day, by far the larger number were netted. The net was baited with a 

 dead horse which, it was explained, must have been in good condition, and from 

 concealment in a nearby hole it was sprung with a wire. No big game hunter 

 could have described a thrilling, dangerous moment in the chase more dramati- 

 cally than did our Condor hunter tell of his excitement when the big birds 



