m 



newly flayed, and place themselves on their backs 

 upon the ground ; the condor, deceived by the ap- 

 pearance, approaches the supposed dead animal to 

 devour it, M^hen the person, within, whose hands are 

 protected by strong gloves, dexterously seizes the 

 legs of the bird, and holds it until his companions, 

 concealed hard by, run up to his assistance, and dis- 

 patch it with clubs. Another mode is to form a 

 small circular enclosure with palisades, in which is 

 placed the carcass of some animal. The condors, 

 who possess great acuteness of sight and smell, are 

 immediately attracted thereby, and, as they are ex- 

 tremely voracious, they gorge themselves to such a 

 degree with food, that not being able readily to 

 rise, and obstructed by the narrowness of the 

 inclosure, they are easily killed by those who lie in 

 Wait for them. The condor, however, possesses 

 great strength of wing, and though filled with food, 

 if it can once raise itself, or is upon an eminence, it 

 will fly with great swiftness, and soon disappears in 

 the air. M. de Bomare observes, that there is very> 

 Httle diiference, except in its colour, between the 

 condor and the laemmergeyer of Switzerland ; and I 

 am of opinion that it is only a variety of the same 

 species. 



Of bats, an animal that holds a middle station be- 

 tween birds and quadrupeds, there are but two spe- 

 cies in Chili : the house-bat, which is in no respect 

 different from the European, and the mountain-bat, 

 which is of the same size and shape, and distin- 

 guishable only by its being of an orange colour. 

 Neither of these are vampyres, as are those of the 

 southern torrid zone, but feed entirely upon insects. 



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