HUNTING IN THE ANDES. 43 



snatched from me by some rapacious bird. In Scotland I 

 have occasionally lost dead and wounded duck owing to 

 the attentions of hoodie crows, but never have I had to 

 hold with the gun or rifle what I had secured by the gun 

 or rifle to the same extent as in Patagonia. The idea of a 

 cache in Patagonia, using the ordinary northern acceptance 

 of that term, is absurd. Except under a roof nothing is 

 safe, and even under a roof, if provisions be left for long, 

 the foxes will dig their way in and devour them. What- 

 ever you kill in an exposed or open position is reduced to 

 bare bones within a couple of hours. 



The condor is the largest of the New World vultures. 

 They stand well over three feet in height, and are said to 

 measure in some few cases fifteen feet across the outspread 

 wings. I only shot two or three as the slaughter seemed 

 useless and the largest of these, an unusually fine speci- 

 men, measured well over ten feet fully stretched from tip 

 to tip of its wings, while a young bird I shot off Hell- 

 gate Cliffs and measured carefully spread nine feet three 

 inches. 



Although the predatory greed of the birds was a great 

 nuisance when we wished to preserve game for our own 

 food, I nevertheless passed many interesting hours in watch- 

 ing them. I had read a great deal concerning the habits 

 of vultures and the marvellous speed with which they 

 appear about a carcase, as well as various speculations as 

 to the particular sense which enables them to discover it. 

 I made one or two experiments with a view to gaining 

 light on this question as far as the condor is concerned ; 

 but before I began these I had had many times to face the 

 task of keeping the condor off game that I had shot in the 

 open country, and I found that to succeed in this was quite 

 impossible unless I remained beside the dead animal. To 

 tie handkerchiefs and rags to flutter and float above the 

 body had no scaring effect, for the birds disregarded them 



