198 CHARLES DARWIN 



that they are watching a dying animal, or the puma devour- 

 ing its prey. If the condors 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 fre- 

 quently attack young goats and lambs; and the shepherd- 

 dogs are trained, whenever they pass 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 on a level piece of ground within an enclosure of 

 sticks with an opening, and when the condors are gorged, 

 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, frequently 

 to the number of five or six together, they roost, 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 diffi- 

 cult 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, had been tied with rope, and 

 was much injured; yet, the moment the line was cut by 

 which its bill was secured, although surrounded by people, 

 it began ravenously to tear a piece of carrion. In a garden 

 at the same place, between twenty and thirty were kept alive. 

 They were fed only once a week, but they appeared in pretty 

 good health. 2 The Chileno countrymen assert that the con- 

 dor will live, and retain its vigour, 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 in- 

 telligence of it, and congregate in an inexplicable manner. 

 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. Re- 

 membering the experiments of M. Audubon, on the little 

 smelling powers of carrion-hawks, I tried in the above- 



a I noticed that several hours before any one of the condors died, all 

 the lice, with which it was infested, crawled to the outside feathers. 1 was 

 assured that this always happened. 



