Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-12-25
SOME NATIVES OF PERU
Distance Certainly Lends Enohsntmapt to
the Condor.
"ara-kny-kay, the Night Bird, and
His Plafntive Cry-Many Snakes
and Lizards.

lalara, Peru, Correspondence New York Post
First of all the birds of Peru comes the
condor, a sober, staid-looking individual,
with black coat, white collar and a
shaVen crown, for all the world if he had
| taken holy orders. He has also a touch
| of white on his wings-cuffs one might call
them. The females are distinctly black
nuns, without a touch of color, though
there is a little white on their wings
Hideous brutes they are to look at near
| to, and if you manage to shoot one, you
will find him swarming with the most
loathsome parasites; but they are a grand
sight up against the sky, sailing swiftly on
their great twenty-foot spread of wing,
| or lowering for hours motionless as if
they were painted against the blue.
The buzzards or vultures are the most
awkward creatures that ever walked the
earth, but, like the condors, grace itself
while on the wing. Their cooring is
much the same, too, black and white, but
the males have bald red heads. something
like a turkey-cocks.
These two birds are the scayengers and
If an animal dies the tablaya or some
great fsh's carcass is washed ashore, they
scent it in half an hour and gather to the
beach in hundreds. They gorge and gorge
for hours, piunging their featheriess heads
and powerful necks deep into the body to
get at the softer parts, until they are so
stuffed they cannot move
In the QuebradaS, where there is water
the GASES Of our Sahara-beautiful fantastic
valleys with steep sides fretted by the
rains and with miniature forests of thorn
trees and here and there flower we find
an immense variety of bird life though
ANIMALS are few. There are foxes and the
IKE, an antelope now and then, and very
rarely tiger on small scale-more like a
wildcat than Bengal man-eater. But the
birds are beautiful; richly colored hawks
black and yellow, with a crown of feath-
ers that falls down about the neck like a
damascened helmet with chains of gold;
pigeon hawks in mottled black and gray,
Frightening into silver on the Wings and
smaller ones still. with brave-looking little
heads and deiicately curving wings / have
seen one of them SWoop like an arrow and
then fly up into the air with great lizard,
almost twice its size. struggling in its tai
ons. while the hawk sounded its short
shrlil whistle like an Indians cry of tri-
umph.
There are wild doves clad in purple that
fill the shadowy tree clumps with a plain
tive melancholy cooling. There are singing
birds, too, some of them with EXQUISITE
notes. The negrita is an active chan with
long tail and shiny black coat; the sono,
the least attractively colored of ALL gray
IN somber shades is the sweetest singer.
linen come lot, all golden brown, and col
ors that flash in the light, and one little
fellow almost like flower, with a body of
scarlet and ebony wings.
Although it seems lifeleSs and bare the
desert itself has its offspring Snakes
some big and harmless, and colorIess. some
small, gayly stri ped and deadly. scorniops
and lizards of every size and hue I'm 10
the great iguano, hideous creature often
a yard long, that darts across ones path
with tail extended and head erect Iii Ike a
SHADOW OF evil Sometimes ride past a
small white owl blinking helplessly in the
glaring sunlight, and little birds hardly dis
tinguishable from the sand itself seem TO
ind some means of living in the wide
waste
But the strangest thing of all is the
n!ght-bird although one often sees them
in the daytime, too. called by an Indian
name which in English You might pro-
nounce wara-kay-kay. 1t is like a large
snipe. with dust-colored body, long neck,
and tufted head. with great sad-looking
eyes like yellow topaz. 1t takes its name
from its cry, which, though soft and sweet
is very piercing. One wakes at night some
times as he lies out under the stars and
hears it, and turns over and sleeps again
feeling less lonely. The bird is easily
tanned, and there seems TO be some SUPER
stitton attached to it, for the people keep
one or two of them in their houses and
put bells around their necks and wrap red
flannel on their long thin legs. They do
not seem to know themselves why they
keep them. To me they seem like the per-
sonifcation of the night wind, always seek
ing, seeking, seeking, with a mournful
lonely wall.
On the edge OF the sea, both air and
water TEEN with life. There are dolphfns
rolling in the breakers, leaping up into
the sunlight: sharks that speed across the
Day IKE d WnlrlWlnd, ueNllilSn ana mon
sters with long waving arms that thrash
the water like a fail: lions and wal
ruses that come up with snort Just by the
boat rail- and huge turtles that sleep on
the waves.
In the air there are enormous pelicans
and swift-fying divers, and stately frigate
birds: gulls of every size and hue, and long
legged long billed shore birds that hunt in
the fringe of foam where swarms of bright
red crabs run along in troops like regi-
nents of English cavalry, and on the rocks
at low water the starfish cluster in motley
consultations. Yes everywhere above, be-
low, and all about life, life, mysterious and
heeting.