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20 
CONDOR. 
yards of a troop of Condors before they retreated, though he had 
other persons in his company. When full-fed the Condor will 
remain motionless on a projecting rock, and has then a sinister 
appearance; if on the ground, however, he allows of a close chase 
before having recourse to his ample wings, hopping along before 
his pursuer. When on the contrary he is pressed by hunger and 
light from emptiness, he will soar to extreme heights in the 
atmosphere, especially in clear weather, whence he can discover 
prey at any possible distance. They lay in the most inaccessible 
parts of the Andes, near the limit of perpetual snow, on the most 
broken and terrific precipices, where no other living creature can 
dwell. Nests have been found at the extraordinary elevation of 
fifteen thousand feet. Their eggs are usually laid on the naked 
rock, or with very little preparation, and never on trees, which 
they even avoid alighting on, unlike their congeners in this 
respect, and always on rocks or the ground, the straightness of 
their nails making this easier for them. The eggs are white, 
and three or four inches long. The young are entirely covered 
with very soft whitish down, and the mother is said to provide for 
them during a long time. The facts relative to their propagation 
are not, however, sufficiently ascertained, for how are we to verify 
assertions relating to operations performed so much beyond the 
reach of ordinary observation. 
Authors describe various modes that have been resorted to for 
destroying the Condors in their native countries, where they 
sometimes become a nuisance; such as poisoning carrion, seizing 
them by the legs by hiding under the skin of a calf, and by 
building narrow enclosures in which is placed putrid flesh, when 
the birds flying down and feeding greedily, are unable to take 
wing again for want of space to get a start by running. But we 
scarcely see any advantage in such stratagems, since they may be 
caught with running knots while disabled by repletion, or even, 
