534 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: ZOOLOGY. 



Darwin in the "Voyage of the Beagle " (pp. 3-6) says : "The Condor is 

 known to have a wide range, being found on the west coast of South 

 America, from the Straits of Magellan, throughout the range of the Cor- 

 dillera, as far, according to M. D'Orbigny, as 8° north latitude. On the 

 Patagonian shore, the steep cliff near the mouth of the Rio Negro, in lat- 

 itude 41°, was the most northern point where I saw these birds, or heard 

 of their existence ; and they have wandered about four hundred miles from 

 the great central line of their habitation in the Andes. Further south, 

 among the bold precipices which form the head of Port Desire, they are 

 not uncommon ; yet only a few stragglers occasionally visit the sea coast. 

 A line of cliff near the mouth of the Santa Cruz is frequented by these birds, 

 and about eighty miles up the river, where the sides of the valley were 

 formed by steep basaltic precipices, the Condor again appeared, although 

 in the intermediate space not one had been seen. From these and similar 

 facts, I believe the presence of the birds is chiefly determined by the occur- 

 rence of perpendicular cliffs. In Patagonia, the Condors, either by pairs 

 or many together, both sleep and breed on the same overhanging ledges. 

 In Chile, however, during the greater part of the year, they haunt the lower 

 country, near the shores of the Pacific, and at night several roost in one 

 tree ; but in the early part of the summer they retire to the most inacces- 

 sible parts of the Cordillera, there to breed in peace. 



"With respect to their propagation, I was told by the country people in 

 Chile, that the Condor makes no sort of nest, but in the months of 

 November and December, lays two white eggs on a shelf of bare rock. 

 Certainly, on the Patagonian coast, I could not see any sort of nest among 

 the cliffs, where the young ones were standing. I was told that young 

 condors could not fly for a whole year, but this probably was a mistake, 

 since M. D'Orbigny says they take to wing in about a month and a half 

 after being hatched. On the fifth of March (corresponding to our Sep- 

 tember), I saw a young bird at Concepcion, which, though in size only a 

 little inferior to a full-grown one, was completely covered by down, like 

 that of a gosling, but of a blackish color. I can, however, scarcely believe 

 that this bird could have used, for some months subsequently, its wings 

 for flight. After the period when the young Condor can fly, apparently as 

 well as the old birds, they yet remain (as I observed in Patagonia) both 

 roosting at night on the same ledge, and hunting by day with their 

 parents ; but before the young bird has the ruff" round the neck white, it 



