i86 HABITS OF THE CONDOR. [c 



basaltic cliffs, I found some plants which I had seen 

 nowhere else, but others I recognized as being wanderers 

 from Tierra del Fuego. These porous rocks serve as a 

 reservoir for the scanty rain-water ; and consequently on 

 the line where the igneous and sedimentary formations 

 unite, some small springs (most rare occurrences in 

 Patagonia) burst forth ; and they could be distinguished 

 at a distance by the circumscribed patches of bright green 

 herbage. 



April lyth. — The bed of the river became rather narrower, 

 and hence the stream more rapid. It here ran at the rate 

 of six knots an hour. 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 

 four 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 ste«p 

 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 



