A VISIT TO TUB COUNTRY. 357 



(tho spider). It is beli< -ve.l f.> originate in the poison of a small spider, or other insect, eaten 

 with the herhii^e. Fever ensues a few hourH afterwards, the animal swells rapidly, and death 

 follows during the day. It is not contagious like the picada, and is most frequent in dry 

 seasons. 



Tin- herds are watched over by a special class the vaqueros who, together with' certain 

 !' the itii(iiilino8, traverse the hills from day to day, looking for the sick and maimed as far as 

 possible, protecting very young calves from attacks of condors, and driving stragglers within 

 the Ixuuidiiries ot the hacienda again. As condors are almost the only enemies to he feared, 

 and their mode of attack is so sudden as to leave little hope of rescue, it is important to be 

 omstantly on the alert for them. They never make an attempt singly nor when the cow is 

 near, but, watching for the first moment when she leaves her newly-born calf at a little 

 distance, two or three will pounce upon it suddenly from a mid-heaven flight. One claws out 

 its eyes at a stroke, and, as its mouth is opened in the agony, a second seizes its tongue ; and 

 thus its cries are stifled before a single sound could have reached the mother. The sharp 

 eye of the vaquero may have caught a glimpse of the rapid swoop perhaps a mile or more 

 away ; yet, what can he do ? Long before he could approach sufficiently near, life will be 

 utterly extinct; and the animal being too young for the patron's table, it is scarcely worth 

 his effort to attempt interruption of the dainty banquet. On some estates, and generally 

 during or about the calving season, there is an annual wholesale slaughter of these pests the 

 condors. 



Though not an ornithologist, I was desirous to inspect closely a bird so famed, not less than 

 to obtain specimens for the National Gallery at home, where the student of the feathered tribe 

 could examine them at leisure. On expressing a wish to possess a pair of the largest dimen- 

 sions, my friend quietly replied: " Very well ; I will kill a mare, and you shall have a dozen 

 if you wish. They are customers we like to be rid of, and would gladly, resign all the 

 ' Buitres' to the personal inspection of ornithologists." This will afford an idea of the value 

 at which mares are held, and the resort of the baciendado in case no animals happen to die 

 at the time he wishes to destroy condors. 



In order to destroy them, usually, a corral or pen is formed of high stakes set in the ground, 

 within which one or more carcasses are placed to entice tbe birds. Not long afterwards they 

 may be seen flocking from far and near, and they are soon busily engaged pulling the flesh in 

 pieces. Knowing that they habitually cram themselves until unable to move without disgorg- 

 ing a part of the food, and that their great weight will prevent their rising without a long pre- 

 paratory run, which the corral does not allow room for, the haciendado quietly bides his 

 time. When he thinks this has arrived, peons, armed with clubs and lassos, enter the 

 corral and beat the birds to death. Sometimes this is not accomplished without fierce strug- 

 gling and occasional bad wounds to the assailants ; but it is rare that a condor escapes ; for if 

 one manages to clear the ground, he will suddenly find a lasso about his neck or leg, and he 

 comes toppling back again. Five of them monstrous birds of both sexes were brought to me 

 late on the evening before my return to Santiago, two of the males measuring each eleven feet 

 ten inches from tip to tip of the wings ; but they could not be conveyed in the birlocho with us ; 

 and though every effort was made to preserve the skins next day, the heat was so great that 

 when they reached the city, three days later, they could not be saved. Subsequently*, however, 

 another pair of equal dimensions was obtained, and these form part of the collection brought 

 home by the Expedition. 



Having the sleepy, sluggish, and ungraceful attitude which belongs to nearly all of the vul- 

 ture tribe, the bird is far from handsome. Except about the wings, back, and neck, the 

 plumage of the male bird is of a bright black color, with occasional greyish tinges. The ends 

 of the wings are of a mottled brown, and the head and neck, as far as the commencement of the 

 breast-bone, wholly bare, the dirty red or brownish skin which covers the latter lying in folds 

 or corrugations. A ruff or circlet of milk-white and downy feathers, about an inch in diameter, 



