46 



THE CONDOR 



Vol,. IX 



On the second day, after preserving the skins, I went up on the panipa to tlie 

 edge of the cliff wliere the landslide had occurred and with glasses discovered a 

 young condor on a ledge in the perpendicular wall tw^enty feet below the edge of the 

 cliff. By means of ropes held at the surface by stakes, with Martin's help, I 

 climbed down to the ledge where the orphaned fledgling as large as a turkey 

 crouched in the most abject loneliness. vShe showed some fight as I worked my 

 way toward her, but slipping a noose over a foot outstretched threateningly toward 

 me she was easily captured and drawn to the pampa above. 



The shelf where the young bird was found was a narrow ledge some fifteen 

 feet in length by three feet in greatest height and width. The nest, if it may be 

 called such, was nothing more than a slight depression of the shelf at its widest and 



YOUNG SOUTH AMliKlCAN CONDOR IN CHARACTERISTIC 

 ATTITUDE ON NEST-EE;DGE 



highest part. There was nothing in it but the fine gTa\-el and small fragments of 

 broken fossil shells from the strata out of which the shelf was hollowed. The edge 

 was white with excrement, and the epiphj^sis of a sheep's limb-bone was the onl}^ 

 sign of food. A small shelf just above the nest, in the wall of the cliff, served as a 

 roosting place, and its edge, too, was white-washed. 



The heights of the Andes are generally regarded as the home of the condor 

 tho it is frequently seen soaring over the pampa far from the foothills. Within the 

 past twenty years the grassy slopes and valleys along the coast and rivers of Pata- 

 gonia have been dotted with extensive sheep farms, where sheep are raised for 

 wool alone. Most of these animals die on the pampa of age or exposure and 

 the abundance of food has probably induced the condor to extend its breeding 



