284 Haunts of the Condor in Peru. 



of their haunts, I may be permitted to add a few particulars 

 which I collected while residing in their vicinity. 



The condor, or Sarcoramphus gryplms, the huitre of the 

 Spaniards, is one of the largest of the vulture tribe. Its breeding 

 places are in the Andes of South America, at great elevations. 

 Its food is carrion, but it will attack lambs and goats, or the 

 young of the llama genus. Two, it is said, will fight a llama,, 

 a heifer, or even a puma. In Chili they are known to roost 

 on trees, when the guasso, or countryman, climbs up and 

 lassoes them. It is reported, that the condor, makes no nest, 

 that the female lays two large white eggs on a bare rock, like 

 most raptorial birds, and the young are unable to fly before a 

 year. 



Tschudi, who had good opportunities of studying the habits 

 of this bird, tells us, that it hatches its young in April and May. 

 The full grown bird measures from the point of the beak to the 

 end of the tail, from 4 feet 10 inches to 5 feet, and from the 

 tip of one wing to that of the other, 12 to 13 feet, When flying 

 it cannot carry a weight of more than eight to ten pounds. 



The condor passes the greater portion of the day in sleep ; 

 hovering in quest of prey chiefly in the morning and evening. 

 While soaring at a height beyond the reach of human eye, the 

 sharp sighted bird discovers his quarry beneath him, and darts 

 down upon it with the swiftness of lightning. Tschudi kept a 

 young one at Lima, and to prevent its escape, when it was able 

 to fly, fastened a chain to its leg, to which was attached a 

 piece of iron of six pounds weight. When it was a year and 

 a half old it flew off, with both chain and iron, and perched 

 upon the spire of a church, whence it was scared away by the 

 carrion hawks. On alighting in the street, a negro attempted 

 to catch him, upon which the bird seized the negro by the ear, 

 and tore it off. The condor then attacked a ne^ro child of three 



O 



years old, threw him on the ground, and knocked him on the 

 head so severely that the child died. This bird died on his 

 passage to Europe. 



The writer's first acquaintance with condors was in Chile, in 

 1825, whilst hunting the puma in the Cordillera, above the hot 

 baths of Colina. Thereabouts this fine bird may often be seen 

 descending from the Andean regions, hovering in the air and 

 on the look out for dead cattle. In Peru they range from the 

 sea coast to an elevation of 16,000 or 17,000 feet in the Cor- 

 dillera ; the writer particularly noticed them wheu he ascended 

 the Andean peak of Tata Jachura, in the province of Tara- 

 paca, with his friend, Don Jorge. This peak is I 7,000 feet 

 high at least. His next meeting Avith them was in the attack 

 at Iquiquc, and he has since observed them in the desert of 

 Ataoama. 



