222 



PATAGONIA. 



April, 1834. 



appeared 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, but it is a cruel experiment, 

 which very likely has been tried. 



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

 that the condors, like other carrion vultures, soon gain 

 intelligence of it, and congregate in an inexplicable man- 

 ner. 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 tainted. 

 Remembering the opinions of M. Audubon, on the little 

 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 up a piece of meat in white paper, I 

 walked backwards and forwards, carrying it in my hand 

 at the distance of about three yards, but no notice what- 

 ever was taken. I then threw it on the ground, within one 

 yard of an old cock bird; he looked at it for a moment 

 with attention, but then regarded it no more. With a stick I 

 pushed it closer and closer, until at last he touched it with 

 his beak ; the paper was then instantly torn off with fury, 

 and at the same moment, every bird in the long row began 



* 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 was always the case. 



f In the case of the Vultur aura, Mr. Owen, in some notes read before 

 the Zoological Society, 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, 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 evident they 

 had gained the intelligence by the powers of smell alone, and not of 

 sight. It would appear from the various facts recorded, that carrion- 

 feeding hawks possess both the sense of sight and smell in an eminent 

 degree. 



