THE MOUNTAINS AT PIRU 265 



sailed low over the cabin many times, giving us an excellent 

 opportunity to admire its sweep of wing, a Condor finally 

 perched in a dead tree near the carcass. Assured that I had 

 now only to hide in the blind to secure short-range studies 

 of it, I climbed to the hill-top; but on my appearance the 

 bird at once took flight and with at least two others, which 

 were circling overhead, disappeared. This was at 9:30 A. 

 M. and although I waited for six hours, it did not return. 



The two following days, I entered the blind before day- 

 break, but the place seemed to possess no further attraction 

 for the Condors. That the birds are not always so shy, 

 however, has been emphatically shown by Mr. W. L. Fin- 

 ley's studies of a pair which at this same season were 

 nesting near Pasadena, some fifty miles away. (The Cen- 

 tury, Vol. LXVV, 1908, p. 370; The Condor, Vols. VIII, X.) 



The Turkey Vultures about the Potrero were less suspi- 

 cious than the Condors ; but to one accustomed to their semi- 

 domesticated condition in many of the towns of our south- 

 ern states, it was not a little surprising to find that here, 

 where they did not look to man for their food, they enter- 

 tained a marked fear of him. 



The day after the burro's death, about twenty Turkey 

 Vultures gathered in the dead tree near the animal's body 

 and occasionally flew over it, hut without once alighting. 

 The following day, when the Condors appeared, six or eight 

 Vultures were perched on the burro, but, with the Condor, 

 they flew at my approach, and not a Vulture returned that 

 day. Rven when I had concealed myself in the blind before 

 they were a-wing, they showed extreme caution in coming to 

 the carcass. The first rays of the sun touched the brown, 

 oak-dotted hillside at 4:50, and ten minutes later the earli- 

 est Vulture was seen ; but although the repast must have 

 been tempting, an hour and a half passed before they ven- 

 tured to come to it. During this period, they sailed to and 

 fro, cautiously inspecting the surroundings, or perched in 

 the dead tree near by. Nothing about the blind could pos- 



