174 S- ORUX, PATAGONIA. [CHAP. ix. 



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 considered as a gre- 

 garious bird. In this part of the country they live altogether on 

 the guanacos which have died a natural death, or, as more com- 

 monly 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 feeding on carrion, the condors fre- 

 quently attack young goats and lambs ; and the shepherd-dogs are 

 trained, whenever they pass over, to run out, and looking upwards 

 to bark violently. The Chilenos destroy and catch numbers. Two 

 methods are used ; one is to place a carcass 'on a level piece of 

 ground within an enclosure of sticks with an opening, and when 

 the condors are gorged, to gallop up on horseback to the entrance, 

 and thus enclose them : for when this bird has not space to run, it 

 cannot give its body sufficient momentum to rise from the ground. 

 The second method is to mark the trees in which, frequently to 

 the number of five or six together, they roost, and then at night to 

 climb up and noose them. They are such heavy sleepers, as I have 

 myself witnessed, that this is not a difficult task. At Valparaiso, 

 I have seen a living condor sold for sixpence, but the common price 



