268 



DIURNAL BIRDS OF PRE Y. 



assailants are enabled to inspect their brilliantly-lighted intended victims at their 

 ease, whose eyes are picked out at the earliest opportunity, and are thus rendered 

 completely defenceless. The herdsmen on Autisaria had lifelong familiarity with 

 the condor, and did not stand in awe of it. They told me that the bird was 

 particularly addicted to old horse and young calf, and might, after feeding, be 

 easily caught with the lasso." Darwin writes that the old birds generally live in 



MALE AND FEMALE COA'DORS (J liat. size). 



pairs, but on the inland basaltic cliffs of Santa Cruz there is a spot which used to 

 be haunted by scores of these birds. " On coming suddenly to the brow of the 

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

 birds start heavily from their resting-place, and wheel away in majestic circles. 

 Having gorged themselves with carrion on the plains below, they retire to their 

 favourite ledges to digest their food. From these facts the condor must to a 

 certain degree be considered 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 



