132 5. CRUZ, PATAGONIA. [CHAP. a. 



From this cause, and from the many great angular fragments, tracking 

 the boats became both dangerous and laborious. 



This day I shot a condor. It measured from tip to tip of the wings, 

 eight and a half feet, and from beak to tail, four feet. This bird is 

 Known to have a wide geographical range, being found on the west 

 coast of South America, from the Strait of Magellan along the Cordillera 

 as far as eight degrees north of the equator. The steep cliff near the 

 mouth of the Rio Negro is its northern limit on the Patagonian coast ; 

 and they have there wandered about lour hundred miles from the great 

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

 bold precipices at the head of Port Desire, the condor is 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 are formed 

 by steep basaltic precipices, the condor reappears. From these facts, 

 it seems that the condors require perpendicular cliffs. In Chile, they 

 haunt, during the greater part of the year, the lower country near the 

 shores of the Pacific, and at night several roost together in one tree ; 

 but in the early part of summer, they retire to the most inaccessible 

 parts of the inner 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 large white eggs on a shelf of bare 

 rock. It is said that the young condors cannot fly for an entire year ; 

 and long after they are able, they continue to roost by night, and hunt 

 by day with their parents. The old birds generally live in pairs ; but 

 among the inland basaltic cliffs of the Santa Cruz, I found a spot, 

 where scores must usually haunt. On coming suddenly to the brow 

 of the precipice, it was a grand spectacle to see between twenty and 

 thirty of these great birds start heavily from their resting-place, and 

 wheel away in majestic circles. From the quantity of dung on the 

 rocks, they must long have frequented this cliff for roosting and 

 breeding. Having gorged themselves with carrion on the plains below, 

 they retire to these favourite ledges to digest their food. From these 

 facts, the condor, like the gallinazo, must to a certain degree be con- 

 sidered as a gregarious bird. In this part of the country they live 

 altogether on the guanacos which have died a natural death, or, as 

 more commonly happens, have been killed by the pumas. I believe, 

 from what I saw in Patagonia, that they do not on ordinary occasions 

 extend their daily excursions to any great distance from their regular 

 sleeping-places. 



The condors may oftentimes be seen at a great height, soaring over 

 a certain spot in the most graceful circles. On some occasions I am 

 sure that they do this only for pleasure, but on others, the Chileno 

 countryman tells you that they are watching a dying animal, or the 

 puma devouring its prey. If the condors glide down, and then suddenly 

 all rise together, the Chileno knows that it is the puma which, watching 

 the carcass, has sprung out to drive away the robbers. Besides 



