40 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



it is stated that " the universal testimony is that the Condor lays 

 but one egg." Condors on this side of the Andes seem to have 

 several peculiarities not noticed elsewhere : their fierceness — or 

 the dread of it — is greater, and they appear to be more amenable 

 to swan-shot than to a bullet, " as the skin is so closely covered 

 with hard glossy plumage that the latter is more liable to glance 

 off" ! The same will probably hold good of buck-shot. Further 

 on we are told that the Condors " select a calf four or five months 

 old and wait till the mother is at some distance, then suddenly 

 swooping down and striking the animal to the ground, to rip out 

 its tongue either as a 'bonne bouclie' or to prevent the utterance 

 of any signal of alarm" ! — the italics are ours. Has Mr. White 

 ever seen this ? We trow not: our experience is that the Condor 

 invariably begins operations at the other end of the victim. 



From the pleasant city of Mendoza, at the foot of the Andes, 

 Mr. White made an excursion to hunt Huanacos, and so far as 

 the hunting was concerned he succeeded abmirably, but he bagged 

 no game. At an elevation of 8300 feet he observed two specimens 

 of the Mountain Biscacha, Lagidium Cuvieri, the occurrence of 

 which we do not remember to have seen previously recorded from 

 this side of the Andes. The most interesting expedition was, 

 however, the one to the neighbourhood of La Paz (a settlement 

 about forty leagues from Mendoza, and not to be confounded 

 with the Bolivian city of the same name), the " Medanos," or 

 sand-hills of which, are the stronghold of the curious Chlamy- 

 dophorus triincatus, known in Argentine Spanish as the " Pichi- 

 ciego," an obvious corruption of "Bicho-ciego," or blind animal, 

 a " beautiful little plantigrade aberrant member of the Armadillo 

 family." Full notes on a single specimen obtained after six 

 days' search by a large number of men, will be found in the 

 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' 1880, pp. 8-11. 



Here we must take leave of the first volume. A second 

 is promised, and as we see by the last 'Ibis' that Mr. P. L. 

 Sclater has described two new species of birds obtained by 

 Mr. White on recent visits to Oran, in the province of Jujuy (not 

 Salta), near the Bolivian frontier, and to Catamarca, it is possible 

 that the next instalment may be more instructive to the naturalist, 

 even if somewhat less amusing to the ordinary reader. 





