THE CONDOR. 



67 



PATAGONIA. 



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 the summer they 

 retire to the most inac- 

 cessible parts of the in- 

 ner Cordillera, there to 

 breed in peace. I. was 

 told by the country peo- 

 ple in Chile that the 

 condor makes no sort of 

 nest, but in the months 

 of November and De- 

 cember 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 w^heel 



THE CONDOR. 



