The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1884-10-03
The Great Yulture Of the Andes.

High up among the towering snow
beaks of the Andes, you will find the
condor the huge carrion-vulture of
South America. As you see him wheel
ING in circles three or four miles above
yDn, he looks ike mere speck; you
would never imagine him bird stand
ing three to four feet high, often meas
.inasa as much as twelve feet between the
tips of his wings. and six feet or more
from beak to tail: with wings strong
enough to break one of your limbs,
and with beak and talons that might
well be a terror 10 the young lambs
and goats of the mountains. On his
feet. he IS white-ne ked, brown-w winged,
awkward creature that. like Sea-bird,
has to run long distance before he
can tiy; but when once he is in the
mir. there is moth NJ more beautiful and
graceful than his flight. His wings
seem to be perfectly motionless, and
hour after hour he may be seen, with
apparently only the head anu neck in
aaion, ascending and descending in
spiral curves, and. floating in mid-air
like paper kite. Little escapes the
farrea hing eye and keen smell of the
condor. AS they soar so majestically
aloft, they seem to be ,asting a
greedy look upon the wayfarers
A. the cattle feeding or wandering
among the mountains. They are ter
ribly voracious birds and are pretty
sure. within very short time. to pounce
Wons those that fail down through
fGigue. exposure or mishap of any kind.
Hetures on the old Peruvian vases rep
resent children struggling in the grasp
Qgcondors, and so one MIGHT suppose
ma these gluttonous creatures would
DFen attack man; but we know of no
Csc to prove this, or the stories that
tell OF them Selling young animals and
bearing them upon their backs to their
rocky haunts twelve or thirteen thou
nnd feet above the sea. They do at
t1ck lambs and goats. first picking out
fhe eyes. and then tearing out the en-
trails with their dagger-like beaks: and
= Is much as the shepherd dogs can
60 10 protect their charge. The mere
neht Of living man. however, is enough
keep them at q distance. They win
aoslow in sweeping circles high above
you, rs You and your donkey struggle
atong the valleys and snow-blocked
pains; but you will have to use all man.
1er Ct precautions to bring them even
NIthin gunshot. II you should fall
eser and pretend to be dead. they
so1ld sweep down on you
N an instant. Thousands of
tnese birds frequent the pre-
elp!tons cliffs of the Uspallata pass,
inch IS the great highway over the
andes for travellers and cattle from the
4tgentine republic into Chill. Here
eerlng the winter months, storms rage
80 many one is lost in the SHOWS or
enks down from exhaustion. Here and
tncre the roadside is strcwed with the
siean-picked bones of horses. mules,
oxen; *nd occasionally the remains of a
euman skeleton, tell of some poor fell
~ over whose fate the ravenous con-
nn nave rc;oiced. some of the battle
eals OF the late war, where hilians
g feruvans fell in such numbers,
~ evidence of the quick and thor
gn work OF these great birds. and in
copper regions of Chill the sides
the paths down which the
mes bring their pack loads of ore, are
yered With the bones of the poor ami
Is that hare fallen down e. hausted
ser then burdens. In certain parts
south America the condor feeds al
ost entirely on the carcass of the
sea kind of wild llama that
i 80 n eonstand dread of its murder
enemy- the puma. The latter On.