The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1885-06-11
HUNTING THE CONDOR.
NOVEL WAR DECLARED BY cHILIANs
The Government Offers Reward TO.
tho Hends of the vultures-A
Wonderful bird.

the hends OF the Vultures-A
Wonderful BIRD.
The Gillian government has declared
and is carrying on novel war;" said
Cornelius w. Ryerson, of New York, who
arrived home from South America re-
Gently, "and that is war of extermina-
tion against the gigantic vulture of the
Andes, the condor The government
issued a proclamation last year declaring
the birds to be an enemy of the republic,
Condors have increased SO rapidly within
the past lew years all along the western
slope OF the great mountain chain which
Is their habitat that they have become by
their foul habits a scourge that has in
creased the already sufficiently unwhole-
some character of the country. With the
nope OF discriminating them or greatly
decreasing their numbers, the government
In Its proclamation, offered bounty of IS
for every condor killed. A friend of mine
who lives in Chilli wrote to me that he be,
lieved there was chance to make a yreat
deal OF money by engaging in condor hunt
ing,and as had several years ex periencein
mountain climbing and hunting all sorts
OF wild beasts and birds both in this aud
| other countries, l went down there last
| fall to see what there might be in this con-
dor hunting. Well, l was there five
months, and after a persistent campaign
against the condor with guns and traps
made up my mind that man has got to
be 100 per cent smarter than am if he
ever gets rich on condor bounties, and that
if the Gillian government expects TO rid
itself OF its big-winged outlaw it will have
IN the country to take up arms against
it.
Tho hunting of condors has been a
regular business in the Andes mountains |
Tor many years. and the natives have
made some money by it, but like all the |
vulture family, the condor grows sus-
picious and wary from contact with man
kind, and it has grown to know and fear
gun so that it is next to impossible to get
within gunshot of one. Shares are now
the only means by which condors may be
taken with any certainty, and they have
learned to be on the lookout for them.
These birds have the most wonderful
powers of vision and flight of any living
creature of the air. Perched on mountain
peaks above the clouds, they watch the
trails which mules and lamas follow with
their burdens thousands of feet below
them, and if an animal dies and is left on
the plain, these monster yultures see it,
and although no human sight can dis
cover the presence of a single bird, in few
seconds time they will be seen dropping
down from the clouds like thunderbolts'
Formerly the hunter took advantage of
this swooping down upon the carcasses of
dead animals by hiding within gunshot
ana picking OIL one OF two eondors before
they could rise out OF range. Traps were i
other animals. But this can rarely be
done successfully now, so wary has the ,
condor become The same wonderful
eyes that keep the trailing caravan in view
or discover the carcass left lying for it's {
use, notes also the hunter hiding with his
the carcass, and the bird remains in safe
~ on Its perch. To shoot it ON the wing, .
unless you are fortunate enough to lie l
secreted near some lofty peak when the '
bird comes sailing through the clouds to
seek it for perch, is entirely out of the I
no other bird attains. This lying in wait
however, far above the snow line for n
chance to put ball through a condor is
something that requires more grit and
nerve than the average hunter can boast.
and consequently there are not many con.
hatch their young among the snow-coyer- =
ed cragS OF the Andes. sometimes 12.0OO
[eet above the sea, and the bird has been S
seen at an altitude of 10000 feet, Once in h
? great while you may hear OF some hun
.er bold enough to Chamber to the nesting o
places among these crags in search of con- 4
ior nests, as the capture of the young or
he eggs is as profitable as killing a grown II
)lrd, but such exploits are few and far V
between: There are always two eggs in a :;
lest, and, as there is nothing that Ventures u
o makes the condor its prey except the t.
Toes so with more certainty that there II
VIII be more Of its kind added to the fami- V
J IN the course OF time than does any -
'ther bird or beast. Traps are set as high e
these nesting places as the hunter "
birds are captured in that way. - 'N0 X
There is no more startling sight thnn D
rom some snowy rock SO high in the
Mountains that the clouds hide the world al
rom your view. to see one of these i'm hi
nense BIRDS 6reak suddenly through the =,
tense vapor below you and sail upward
With the broad sweep of its ponderous Of
wings into the haunts where it dwells =,
lone in the solitude. 1t seems like some
winged demon daring TO seek the realms 81
4 temperature beyond which human ex- 60
mong the snowy peaks Of Chill and Peru HI
Patagonia. With sweep of wing twelve I'll
Get In extent the swiftpess of condor's -
light is such that it wilt sail out of sight
Notwithstanding its great size, within the
pace OF very few minutes 1t NAV with =
ase eat its breakfast IN the northern
.ndes and twelve hours later 90 To
post among the peaks of the southern sea bt
past =,
If 1t were possible to get ut the nests -
the condor - that its eggs might be :
there might be Some chance
lat the outlawed bird would in time be -
but the systematic sealing =
ICY peaks to the hight of anywhere from
,OOo to 5000 feet above the ocean for the B.
urpose of bird-nesting, even ut IS nest, =
not nkely TO ever come to pass. Poison
g OF the birds might be made cffectual, TT
~ unless some poison can be made so u
lady that 1t will kill the bird as it stands
Ier the carcase it is devouring, that
cans OF determination cannot be made r.
,actlcal. The hunter must produce he
'ldence that he has killed condor be-
re he can secure the bounty That evi
'nce ls the birds head A poisoned bird
ould carry that evidence with him and de-
e with 1t among inaccessible peaks. The of
,isonlng OF condors has been tried and
rs not satisfactory to the hunters am
me opinion that this bird has the PI
lailty OF self-presevation developed too
rgeiy 10 make its a0aihilation even re- %
otely probable. When the last South Re
merican dies there will be plenty Of
ndors ready to devour his body If they
we the opportunity" =