BIRDS. 



glide down, and then suddenly all rise together, the Chileno knows that it is the 

 puma, which, watching the carcass, has sprung out to drive away the robbers. 

 Besides feeding on carrion, the condors frequently attack young goats and 

 lambs. Hence the shepherds train their dogs, the moment the enemy passes 

 over, to run out, and looking upwards, to bark violently. The Chilenos destroy 

 and catch numbers ; two methods are used : one is to place a carcass within an 

 enclosure of sticks on a level piece of ground, and when the condors have gorged 

 themselves to gallop up on horseback to the entrance, and thus enclose them : for 

 when this bird has not space to run, it cannot give its body sufficient momentum 

 to rise from the ground. The second method is to mark the trees in which, fre- 

 quently to the number of five or six, they roost together, and then at night to climb 

 up and noose them ; they are such heavy sleepers, as I have myself witnessed, that 

 this is not a difficult task. At Valparaiso I have seen a living condor sold for 

 sixpence, but the common price is eight or ten shillings. One which I saw 

 brought in for sale, had been lashed with a rope, and was much injured; but 

 the moment the line was cut by which its bill was secured, it began, although 

 surrounded by people, ravenously to tear a piece of carrion. In a garden at the 

 same place, between twenty and thirty of these birds were kept alive; they 

 were fed only once a week, yet they appeared to be in pretty good health.* 

 The Chileno countrymen assert, that the condor will live and retain its powers 

 between five and six weeks without eating : I cannot answer for the truth of this 

 fact, but it is a cruel experiment, which very likely has been tried. 



When an animal is killed in this country, it is well known that the condors, 

 like other carrion vultures, gain the intelligence and congregate in a manner 

 which often appears inexplicable. In most cases, it must not be overlooked, 

 that the birds have discovered their prey, and have picked the skeleton clean, 

 before the flesh is in the least degree tainted. Remembering the opinion of 

 M. Audubon on the deficient smelling powers of such birds,t I tried in the above 

 mentioned garden, the following experiment. The condors were tied, each by a 

 rope, in a long row at the bottom of a wall. Having folded a piece of meat in 

 white paper, I walked backwards and forwards, carrying it in my hand at the 



* I noticed that several hours before any of the Condors died, all the lice with which they are infested, 

 crawled to the outside feathers. I was told, that this always happened. 



t In the case of the Cathartes Aura, Mr. Owen, in some notes read before the Zoological Society, (See 

 Magazine of Nat. Hist. New Ser. vol. i. p. 638.) has demonstrated from the developed form of the olfactory 

 nerves, that this bird must possess an acute sense of smell. It was mentioned on the same evening, in a com- 

 munication from Mr. Soils, that on two occasions, persons in the West Indies having died, and their bodies not 

 being buried till they smelt offensively, these birds congregated in numbers on the roof of the house. This 

 instance appears quite conclusive, as it was certain, from the construction of the buildings, that they must have 

 gained the intelligence by the sense of smell alone, and not by that of sight. It would appear from the various 

 facts recorded, that carrion-feeding hawks possess both senses, in a very high degree. 



