53^ PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: ZOOLOGY. 



such heavy sleepers, as I have myself witnessed, that it 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 

 for sale, had been lashed with a rope, and was much injured ; but the 

 moment the line was cut by which its bill was secured, it began, although 

 surrounded by people, ravenously to tear a piece of carrion. In a garden 

 at the same place, between twenty and thirty of these birds were kept 

 alive ; they were fed only once a week, yet they appeared to be in pretty 

 good health. The Chileno countrymen assert, that the Condor will live 

 and retain its powers between five and six weeks without eating; I can- 

 not answer for the truth of this fact, but it is a cruel experiment, which 

 very likely has been tried. 



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

 Condors, like other carrion vultures, gain the intelligence and congregate 

 in a manner which often appears inexplicable. 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 opinion of M. Audubon on the deficient smelling 

 powers of such birds, I tried in the above mentioned garden, the follow- 

 ing experiment. The Condors were tied, each by a rope, in a long row 

 at the bottom of a wall. Having folded 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 was taken of it. I then 

 threw it on the ground within one yard of an old cock 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 

 wings. Under the same circumstances, it would have been quite impos- 

 sible to have deceived a dog." 



The following is from Mr. Hatcher's Narrative of the Expedition, pp. 

 61-65: "The country for some two or three miles to the northward of 

 Cape Fairweather consists of rounded hills separated by shallow depres- 

 sions, while a loose, warm, sandy soil takes the place of the shingle of 

 the plains and supports a considerable growth of grass and calafate 

 bushes. It is a favorite retreat for the guanaco and rhea, as well as many 

 other mammals and birds 



