224 Mr. W. Goodfellow — Ornithological 



monarchs o£ the Equator — Cayambe, Antisana, Cotopaxi, 

 Cotocachi, Siiicholagua, and others. 



We found that during the night foxes had been eating the 

 carcase, and many were still around it. We shot several, but 

 they were so bold and venturesome that we had some difficulty 

 in keeping them off. As the day wore on a few Condors began 

 to arrive. It was a gi'and. sight to see such great birds 

 directly overhead in the cloudless sky. The wind rushing 

 through their wings made such a loud noise when we first 

 heard it in the tent, that we thought they were soaring around 

 us. Not one of them settled near the carcase during our stay 

 up there, but they watched it from inaccessible heights around. 

 We tried to shoot them when flying overhead, but they 

 kept out of range, and although we sometimes heard the 

 bullets strike them, they seemed to have no effect. We 

 were unfortunate in having no rifles with us. They had 

 been detained at the Customs and had not then arrived in 

 Quito. When the Indians returned to fetch our baggage, 

 we went back to Quito for a week, and then made a second 

 visit to Pichincha. This time we chose a better camping- 

 ground about a thousand feet lower down, on a spot over- 

 shadowed by high cliffs. A steep incline led to the top of 

 them, and. here we killed another mare. At this place we 

 camped for a week, and although great numbers of Condors 

 continuously circled overhead, not one settled. However, 

 we shot a male and two females that came down lower than 

 the rest. The male measured 10 feet 6 inches across the 

 wings. Both the females were smaller. It is most unpleasant 

 work skinning a Condor, for they are covered with lice ; on 

 no other bird have I seen them anything like so abundant. 



In Ecuador Condors are much more numerous on the 

 ]']astern Andes, owing to the vaster solitudes there and the 

 thousands of cattle that wander over the mountains in a 

 half-wild condition. Numbers of the latter perish from cold 

 and other causes, so there is a continual feast for the Condors. 

 We once came upon four dead oxen near Cotopaxi, and there 

 must have been at least eighty Condors around them, but 

 thuy all took to flight as soon as they saw us appear on a ridge 



