With respect to their propagation, I was told by the country people in
Chile, that the condor makes no sort of nest, but in the months of
November and December lays two large white eggs on a shelf of bare
rock. It is said that the young condors cannot fly for an entire year;
and long after they are able, they continue to roost by night, and hunt
by day with their parents. The old birds generally live in pairs; but
among the inland basaltic cliffs of the Santa Cruz, I found a spot,
where scores must usually haunt. On coming suddenly to the brow of the
precipice, it was a grand spectacle to see between twenty and thirty of
these great birds start heavily from their resting-place, and wheel
away in majestic circles. From the quantity of dung on the rocks they
must long have frequented this cliff for roosting and breeding. Having
gorged themselves with carrion on the plains below, they retire to
these favourite ledges to digest their food. From these facts, the
condor, like the gallinazo, 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 commonly
happens, have been killed by the pumas. I believe, from what I saw in
Patagonia, that they do not on ordinary occasions extend their daily
excursions to any great distance from their regular sleeping-places.
The condors may oftentimes be seen at a great height, soaring over a
certain spot in the most graceful circles. On some occasions I am sure
that they do this only for pleasure, but on others, the Chileno
countryman tells you that they are watching a dying animal, or the puma
devouring 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 frequently 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 they at night to climb up and noose
them. They are such heavy sleepers, as I have myself witnessed, that
this is not a difficult task. At Valparaiso, I have seen a living
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