The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1885-09-12
The Plague of the Andes.

to the monster vultures of South America
known as the Condor. Mr. Cornelius
Ryerson, of New York city, who has re-
Gently returned from South America, gives
some interesting facts with regard to this
fierce marauder He says:
''The Chilian Government has declared
war of determination against the gigantic
vulture of the Andes, the condor. The
Government issued proclamationlast year
declaring the bird to be an enemy of the
republic. Condors have increased so rap
idly within the past few years all along the
western slope of the great mountain chain,
which is their habitat, that they have be-
come by their foul habits scourge that
has increased the already sufficiently un-
wholesome character of the country. With
the hope of exterminating them, or at least
greatly decreasing their numbers, the Gov
ernment, in its proclamation, offered a
bounty of So for every condor killed A
friend of mine who lives in Chill wrote to
me that he believed there was chance to
make great deal of money by engaging
in condor hunting, and as | had several
years experience in mountain climbing and
hunting all sorts of wild beasts and birds,
both in this and other countries, / went
down there last fall to see what there might
be in this condor hunting. Well, I was
there five months, and after a persistent
campaign against the condor with guns and
traps, I made up my mind that man has
got to be a hundred per cent. smarter than
[ am if he ever gets rich on condor boun-
ties, and that if the Chilian Government
expects to rid itself of its big-winged out
law it will have to detail every man, woman
and child in the country to take up arms
against it.
"The hunting of condors has been a reg
ular business in the Andes mountains for
many years, and the natives have made
some money at it; but, like all the vulture
family, the condor grows suspicious and
wary from contact with mankind, and it
has grown to know and fear gun so that
it is next to impossible to get within gun
shot of one. Snares 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
llamas follow with their burdens thousands
of feet below them, and if an animal dies
and is left on the plain, these monster vul-
lures see it, and although no human eye
can discover the presence Of a single bird,
in a few seconds time they will be seen
dropping down from the clouds like thun-
derbolts Formerly the hunter took advan-
tage of this swooping down upon the car
casses of dead animals by hiding within
gunshot and picking off one or two before
they could rise out of range. Traps were
also set beside dead bodies of mules and
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 its use, notes also the
hunter hiding with his gun, or the trapper
arranging his snare by the carcass, and the
bird remains in safety on its perch. To
shoot it on the wing, unless you are fortu-
nate to lie secreted near some lofty peak
when the bird comes sailing through the
clouds to seek it for a perch, is entirely out
of the question, for it flies at taltitudes such
as no other bird attains. This lying in
wait, however, far above the snow line for
chance to put ball through condor is
something that requires more grit and nerve
than the average hunter can boast, and
consequently there are not many condors
killed on the wing. These birds hatch
their young among the snow-covered crags
cf the Andes, sometimes $4,000 feet above
the sea, and the bird has been seen at an
altitude of 10000 feet Once in great
while you may hear of some hunter bold
enough to Chamber to the nesting places
among these crags in search of condor
nests as the capture of the young or The
the eggs is as profitable as killing grown
bird, but such exploits are few and far be
tween. There are always two eggs in {
nest, and, as there is nothing that ventures
to make the condor its prey except tht
hunter, when condor makes its nest i
does so with more certainty that there vii
be more of its kind added to the family in
the course of time than does any other
bird or beast. Traps are set as high among
these nesting places as the hunter can dare
to venture, and many Of the birds are cap
tured in that way.
"There is no more startling sight thar
from some snow rock so high in The
mountains that the clouds hide the worlC
from your view to see one of these immense
birds break suddenly through the dense
vapor below you and sail upward with the
broad sweep of its ponderous wings int
the haunts where it dwells alone in soil
tude, 1t seems like some winged demon
daring to seek the realms of the sky. Thi
bird can stand range of temperature be
yond which human existence is impossible
and is at home among the snowy peaks O
Chill and Peru as well as upon the burning
sands of Patagonia. With sweep of wins
twelve feet in extent the swiftness of ;
condors fight is such that it will sail on
of sight, notwithstanding its great size
within the space of very few minutes
1t may with ease eat its breakfast in tn
Northern Andes and twelve hours later g
to roost among the peaks of the souther
coast
eff it were possible to get at the nest
of the condor so that its eggs might be dc
stroyed, there might be some chance tha
the outlawed bird would in time be extel
minated, but the systematic scaling of ic,
peaks to the height of anywhere from II,
COO to $4,000 feet above the ocean for tn
purpose of birdnesting, even at So a nest
is not likely to ever come to pass. Poison
ing of the birds might be made efectua
but unless some poison can be made $
deadly that it will kill the bird as it stand
over the carcass it is devouring that mean
of determination cannot be made practical
The hunter must produce the evidene
that he has killed condor before he cal
secure the bounty. That evidence is tn
birds head. A poisoned bird would carr
off that evidence with him, and die with
among inaccessible peaks. The POISONING
of condors has been tried and was not sat
isfactory to the hunters | am of tn
opinion that this bird has the quality 0
self-preservation developed too largely t
make its humiliation even remotely proba
bic. When the last South American die
there will be plenty of condors ready t
davour his hodv If thev have the oppoT