270 DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. 



attack young goats and lambs ; and the shepherd dogs are trained, whenever they 

 pass over, to run out, and looking upwards to bark violently." From the feeble 

 grasping power of their feet, and especially the small size of the first toe, it is 

 perfectly evident that condors cannot carry off animals of any size, and all the 

 legends of their flying away with children may be discredited. 



Frequently roosting in trees on the lower grounds during a considerable 

 portion of the year, in the breeding-season condors retire to the most inaccessible 

 parts of the mountains or sea-cliffs. Here during the summer months of November 

 and December the female deposits two large white eggs on some rocky ledge, 

 without any attempt at making a nest. The young are clothed with grey down, 

 and remain a long time in the breeding-place, where they have been observed as 

 late as May. Owing to their destructive propensities, condors are incessantly 

 persecuted by the natives, and have thus been greatly reduced in numbers in 

 many districts. Mr. Whymper states, however, that as many as a dozen may still 

 be seen at a time in the neighbourhood of Chimborazo. The birds may be either 

 lassoed when gorged, or noosed while roosting in trees ; while the Chilenos also 

 capture them by surrounding a carcase with a fence of sticks, in which an opening 

 is left, and then galloping up on horseback when the birds are gorged, and thus 

 enclosing them. As a condor requires a certain space in which to run before being 

 able to rise from level ground, the fence effectually prevents their escape. To shoot 

 a condor on the wing requires some stratagem, as at a distance of thirty or forty 

 yards a charge of buckshot produces no effect. Mr. J. R. H. MacFarlane relates 

 that he was able to draw the birds within distance by tying up his dog and con- 

 cealing himself behind a rock close by. " Soon," he writes, " I perceived that the 

 plaintive noises made by my dog had produced an effect ; gradually the condors 

 passed and repassed in their majestic flight, curiosity bringing them each time 

 nearer and nearer, till at last I saw the most inquisitive bird passing within five 

 yards of my retreat, when to drop the lock and deliver the contents of both barrels 

 was the work of a second. To see a heavy bird such as a mallard suddenly drop 

 with a thud, is generally satisfactory, so my feelings may be understood when 

 my raptorial friend plumped down about two hundred feet below, sliding and 

 rolling down the sand of the precipice, at the foot of which I found him lying as 

 dead as a stone." 



The brilliantly-coloured king- vulture (Cathartes papa) is dis- 

 tinguished generically from the condor, to which it is far inferior in 

 size, by the second toe being longer than the fourth, and by the whole of the front 

 of the head of the male being covered with wattles, while the female has a single 

 upright wattle over the nostril. During life the naked portions of the head and 

 neck of the male are coloured with shades of orange, purple, and crimson ; while 

 the plumage of a large portion of the upper-parts is cream-colour tending to 

 fawn ; the greater wing-coverts and quills, together with the lower part of the 

 beak, rump, upper tail-coverts and tail, are black; and nearly the whole under 

 surface white with a tinge of cream. Round the neck the feathers are deep grey ; 

 the beak is yellowish horn-colour, with a brown base ; the feet are greyish black ; 

 and the iris is white. The female is more soberly coloured, having the whole of 

 the upper surface dark. 



