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 fo pleasure, but on others, the Chileno countryman tells yo that they are watching a dying animal, or the puma devouring its prey. If the condors glide down, and then suddenl all rise together, the Chileno knows that it is the pum which, watching the carcass, has sprung out to drive awa 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, an looking upwards to bark violently. The Chilenos destro and catch numbers. Two methods are used; one is to plac a carcass on a level piece of ground within an enclosure o sticks with an opening, and when the condors are gorged to gallop up on horseback to the entrance, and thus enclos them: for when this bird has not space to run, it canno give its body sufficient momentum to rise from the ground The second method is to mark the trees in which, frequentl to the number of five or six together, they roost, and the at night to climb up and noose them. They are such heav sleepers, as I have myself witnessed, that this is not a difficult task. At Valparaiso, I have seen a living condor sol for sixpence, but the common price is eight or ten shillings One which I saw brought in, had been tied with rope, an was much injured; yet, the moment the line was cut b which its bill was secured, although surrounded by people it began ravenously to tear a piece of carrion. In a garde at the same place, between twenty and thirty were kept alive They were fed only once a week, but they appeared in prett good health. [2] The Chileno countrymen assert that the condor will live, and retain its vigour, between five and six week without eating: I cannot answer for the truth of this, bu it is a cruel experiment, which very likely has been tried.
When an animal is killed in the country, it is well know that the condors, like other carrion-vultures, soon gain intelligence of it, and congregate in an inexplicable manner In most cases it must not be overlooked, that the bird have discovered their prey, and have picked the skeleto clean, before the flesh is in the least degree tainted. Remembering the experiments of M. Audubon, on the littl smelling powers of carrion-hawks, I tried in the above mentioned garden the following experiment: the condor were tied, each by a rope, in a long row at the bottom of wall; and having folded up a piece of meat in white paper, walked backwards and forwards, carrying it in my hand a the distance of about three yards from them, but no notic whatever was taken. I then threw it on the ground, withi one yard of an old male bird; he looked at it for a momen with attention, but then regarded it no more. With a stic I pushed it closer and closer, until at last he touched it wit his beak; the paper was then instantly torn off with fury and at the same moment, every bird in the long row bega struggling and flapping its wings. Under the same circumstances, it would have been quite impossible to have deceive a dog. The evidence in favour of and against the acut smelling powers of carrion-vultures is singularly balanced Professor Owen has demonstrated that the olfactory nerve of the turkey-buzzard (Cathartes aura) are highly developed, and on the evening when Mr. Owen's paper was rea at the Zoological Society, it was mentioned by a gentlema that he had seen the carrion-hawks in the West Indies o two occasions collect on the roof of a house, when a corps had become offensive from not having been buried, in thi case, the intelligence could hardly have been acquired b sight. On the other hand, besides the experiments of Audubon and that one by myself, Mr. Bachman has tried in th United States many varied plans, showing that neither th turkey-buzzard (the species dissected by Professor Owen nor the gallinazo find their food by smell. He covered portions of highly-offensive offal with a thin canvas cloth, an strewed pieces of meat on it: these the carrion-vultures at up, and then remained quietly standing, with their beak within the eighth of an inch of the putrid mass, withou discovering it. A small rent was made in the canvas, an the offal was immediately discovered; the canvas was replaced by a fresh piece, and meat again put on it, and wa again devoured by the vultures without their discoverin the hidden mass on which they were trampling. These fact are attested by the signatures of six gentlemen, besides tha of Mr. Bachman. [3
Often when lying down to rest on the open plains, o looking upwards, I have seen carrion-hawks sailing throug the air at a great height. Where the country is level I d not believe a space of the heavens, of more than fifteen degrees above the horizon, is commonly viewed with any attention by a person either walking or on horseback. If suc be the case, and the vulture is on the wing at a height o between three and four thousand feet, before it could com within the range of vision, its distance in a straight lin from the beholder's eye, would be rather more than tw British miles. Might it not thus readily be overlooked When an animal is killed by the sportsman in a lonely valley may he not all the while be watched from above by th sharp-sighted bird? And will not the manner of its descen proclaim throughout the district to the whole family o carrion-feeders, that their prey is at hand?