224 Mr. W. Goodfellow — Ornithological 
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monarchs o£ the Equator — Cayambe, Antisana, Cotopaxi, 
Cotocachi, Sincliolagua^ and others. 
We found that during the night foxes had been eating the 
carcase, and many were still around it. We shot several, but 
they were so bold and venturesome that we had some difficulty 
in keeping them off. As the day wore on a few Condors began 
to arrive. It was a grand, sight to see such great birds 
directly overhead in the cloudless sky. The wind rushing 
through their wings made such a loud noise when we first 
heard it in the tent, that we thought they were soaring around 
us. Not one of them settled near the carcase during our stay 
up there, but they watched it from inaccessible heights around. 
We tried to shoot them when flying overhead, but they 
kept out of range, and although we sometimes heard the 
bullets strike them, they seemed to have no effect. We 
were unfortunate in having no rifles with us. They had 
been detained at the Customs and had not. then arrived in 
Quito. When the Indians returned to fetch our baggage, 
we went back to Quito for a week, and then made a second 
visit to Pichincha. This time we chose a better camping- 
ground about a thousand feet lower down, on a spot over- 
shadowed by high clifi's. A steep incline led to the top of 
them, and here we killed another mare. At this place we 
camped for a week, and although great numbers of Condors 
continuously circled overhead, not one settled. However, 
we shot a male and two females that came down lower than 
the rest. The male measured 10 feet 6 inches across the. 
wings. Both the females were smaller. It is most unpleasant 
work skinning a Condor, for they are covered with lice ; on 
no other bird have I seen them anything like so abundant. 
In Ecuador Condors are much more numerous on the 
Eastern Andes, owing to the vaster solitudes there and the 
thousands of cattle that wander over the mountains in a 
half- wild condition. Numbers of the latter perish from cold 
and other causes, so there is a continual feast for the Condors. 
We once came upon four dead oxen near Cotopaxi, and there 
must have been at least eighty Condors around them, but 
they all took to flight as soon as they saw us appear on a ridge 
