268 
DIURNAL BIRDS OF PRE Y 
assailants are enabled to inspect their brilliantly-lighted intended victims at their 
ease, whose eyes are picked out at the earliest opportunity, and are thus rendered 
completely defenceless. The herdsmen on Autisana had lifelong familiarity with 
the condor, and did not stand in awe of it. They told me that the bird was 
particularly addicted to old horse and young calf, and might, after feeding, be 
easily caught with the lasso.” Darwin writes that the old birds generally live in 
MALE AND FEMALE CONDORS (£ liat. Size). 
pairs, but on the inland basaltic cliffs of Santa Cruz there is a spot which used to 
be haunted by scores of these birds. “ On coming suddenly to the brow of the 
precipice, it was a grand spectacle to see between twenty and thirty of these grand 
birds start heavily from their resting-place, and wheel away in majestic circles. 
Having gorged themselves with carrion on the plains below, they retire to their 
favourite ledges to digest their food. From these facts the condor must to a 
certain degree be considered as a gregarious bird. In this part of the country 
they live altogether on the guanacos which have died a natural death, or, as more 
