694 



THE TROPICAL WOULD. 



As they glided close over my head, I intently watched from an oblique position the 

 outlines of the separate and terminal feathers of the wing ; if there had been the 

 least vibratory movement these would have blended together, but they were seen dis- 

 tinct against the blue sky. The head and neck were moved frequently and apparently 

 with force, and it appeared that the extended wings formed the fulcrum on which the 

 movements of the neck, body, and tail acted. If the bird wished to descend, the 

 wings were for a moment collapsed, and then, when again expanded with an altered 

 inclination, the momentum gained by the rapid descent seemed to urge the bird up- 

 wards with the even and steady movement of a paper kite." 



According to Humboldt and D'Orbigny, the condor is a contemptible coward, whom 

 the stick of a child is able to put to flight. Far from venturing to attack any full- 

 grown, larger animal — the llama, the ox, or even man, as former travelers asserted — 

 he feeds, like other vultures, only upon dead carcasses, or on new-born lambs and 

 calves, whom he tears from the side of their mothers. He thus does so much damage 

 to the herds, that the shepherds pursue and kill him whenever they can. As even a 

 bullet frequently glances off from his thick feathery coat, the natives never use fire- 

 arms for his destruction, but make use of various traps, of the sling, or of the bolas, 

 which they are able to throw with such marvelous dexterity. In the Peruvian province 

 of Abacay, an Indian provided with cords conceals himself under a fresh cow's skin, 

 to which some pieces of flesh are left attached. The condors soon pounce upon the 

 prey, but while they are feasting he fastens their legs to the skin. This being accom- 

 plished, he suddenly comes forth, and the alarmed birds vainly flap their wings, for 

 other Indians hurry towards them, throw their mantles or their lassos over them, and 

 carry the condors to their village, where they are reserved for the next bull-fight. 

 For a full week before this spectacle is to take place, the bird gets nothing to eat, and 

 is then bound upon the back of a bull which has previously been scarified with lances. 

 The bellowing of the poor animal, lacerated by the famished vulture, and vainly 

 endeavoring to cast off its tormentor, amuses what may well be called the "swinish 

 multitude." In the province of Huarochirin there is a large natural funnel-shaped 

 excavation, about sixty feet deep, with a diameter of about eighty feet at the top. A 

 dead mule is placed on the brink of the precipice. The tugging of the condors at the 

 dead carcass causes it to fall into the hole ; they follow it with greedy haste, and 

 having gorged themselves with food, are unable again to rise from the narrow bottom 

 of the funnel. Tschudi saw the Indians kill at once, with sticks, twenty-eight of the 

 birds which had been thus entrapped. In a somewhat similar manner condors are 

 caught in Peru, Bolivia, and Chili, as far as their range extends, and are frequently 

 brought to y alparaiso and Callao, where they are sold for a few dollars to the foreign 

 ships, and thence conveyed to Europe. 



The condor, though a very large bird, about four feet long, and measuring at least 

 three yards from tip to tip of his extended wings, is far from attaining the dimensions 

 assigned to him by the earlier writers and naturalists, who, emulating Sindbad the Sailor, 

 in his account of the roc, described him as a giant whose bulk darkened the air. For- 

 tunately the works of nature do not require the exaggerations of fiction to be rendered 

 interesting, and the marvels of organic nature which scientific inquiries reveal are far 

 more wonderful than any which romancers may invent. 



While the condor is considered an enemy to man, the Gallinazos, Turkey-buzzards, 



