° 1912 J Rhoads, Birds of the Paramo of Central Ecuador. 149 



chincha. The ubiquitous Sparrow Hawk also climbs these slopes, 

 and, for all one can see, it is exactly the same as ours of the States. 

 High over all careened the white ruffed Condors. As many as 

 five could be seen at one time, circling the summit or setting their 

 course directly toward and over us when our shooting became most 

 noisy. Their appearance in flight resembled closel}^ that of the 

 California Vulture, there being more of the Eagle in it than is seen 

 in the gyrations of our Turkey Vulture. No flapping was noted, 

 except a few strokes when shot at, as one flew directly over, about 

 250 feet above our heads. The flight is very swift, not often in 

 circles but from peak to peak or down over the Paramo, to which 

 region they seem to mostly confine themselves. We never saw 

 them at Rosario, though they are said by Mr. Soderstrom to breed 

 as low in the canons as 8,500 feet. Despite their white secondaries 

 and collar. Condors rarely look whitish in flight, the back generally 

 being above the line of vision. I was greatly disappointed in the 

 apparently small size of these birds from an open-air viewpoint. 

 They actually looked no larger, in such magnificent surroundings, 

 than our own poor Buzzards. However, even mountains look small 

 from the Paramo and when one of the great birds bore down upon 

 me, at the report of my gun, and came rushing along about 150 

 feet overhead, with the tempest in his teeth and his widely dis- 

 tended primaries cutting the air with a sound like a hundred sabres, 

 I was quite impressed. The glancing eye and rapidly turning 

 head, as he made a few circles above me, showed that he also was 

 looking for game, but evidently my anatomy was not to his fancy 

 and he passed grandly on. 



Haddonfield, N. J. 

 Feb. 9th, 1912. 



