HAWKS AND OWLS. 17 



ranges in search of a new meal, or hang suspended on the 

 watch for prey at a height when even its monstrous expanse 

 of wing is reduced to an. almost invisible point. Yet carrion 

 and " a naked savage " bring this monarch amongst birds to 

 grief. They are taken alive by the Mexican Indians and 

 half-breeds in a manner which, though simple in itself, 

 requires both nerve and strength in the trapper. The sole 

 apparatus consists of a newly flayed skin of cow or buffalo. 

 This the Indian places on the ground hair downwards on 

 some bare spot, and then, crawling underneath, turns over 

 on his back and waits. In a short time a condor comes 

 overhead, wheels round and descends on the hide. Immedi- 

 ately his talons touch the skin the Indian seizes the legs, 

 and, starting up, overwhelms the bird and binds him with 

 thongs kept ready ; a process, however, which usually meets 

 with a very stubborn resistance. It is just this weakness for 

 rank flesh that is the betrayal of all vulture kind. All 

 through the East it seems as though Nature had kept 

 especially in mind the scavengering duties of these her too 

 hideous children, and meat with that gameyness which is 

 produced by a few days' exposure to a tropical sun is an 

 irresistible attraction to them. The Andes type is no better. 

 The wandering tribes take it by placing a dead horse in 

 an advanced state of nnsavouriness within a high wattle 

 enclosure, and noosing the glutted birds when they have fed 

 too freely to rise. And in much the same way, according to 

 Tschudi, in one of the Papuan provinces there exists a deep 

 natural funnel-shaped cavity in the side of a certain valley. 

 This is utilized by the Indian as a ready-made trap for 

 capturing condors. They place a dead horse or mule on the 

 brick of this hollow, and the pecking and tugging of the giant 

 birds presently roll it down the declivity. The birds follow, 

 and being heavy and gorged, are unable to ascend again, clubs 

 and stones finishing off the disgusting revellers to the last one. 

 Mr. Willard Schultz, writing to the American Forest and 

 Stream, gives a curious picture of the superstitions attendant 



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