Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1900-02-01
coNDoRs ALMOST DIFFERENTIATED.
The Cunning and Cruel Bird Of the Andes
Now Seldom Seen.

People In Chile told me, writes w. K.
Curtis, in the Chicago Record, that the
cunning and cruel condor, which used
to carry off lambs and kids and even
children and sweep down upon the un-
wary traveller In the mountains, is al
most exterminated This tiger of birds
Is now seldom seen except in the
southern ranges of the Andes, where
the population is sparse. There it still
preys upon the focks and henroosts
and is dreaded by farmers and from
tiersmen. Some years ago the Con-
gress of Chile passed an act declaring
the national bird public nuisance
and Offering bounty of So for every
condor killed. This reduced the num-
Der rapidly at a cost of several thou
sand dollars to the public treasury, and
they are now as scarce as the bald
headed eagle In the United States. The
majority of people of Chile have new
er seen anything but the miserable and
repulsive specimens that are kept In
the geological gardens. Condors do
not thrive in captivity. The rare at
mosphere and the low temperature of
the mountain tops are necessary to
their existence.
Passing over the Andes on muleback
or in "A railway train, black specks
in the sky are often pointed out to un-
sophisticated travellers as condors
soaring in the blue empyrean," as we
read in the old Biographies, and it is
just as well for tenderfeet to believe
what is told them and enjoy the salts
faction of having seen one. You occa-
slonally hear prospectors tell of con
doris haunting the mule trails in the
interior, waiting for some poor ex-
hausted beast to lie down and die.
They are said to smell carrion farther
than ii can be seen. No doubt a mys-
ferrous intuition informs them when
animals are about to peg out but
scientists insist that atmospheric vi
brations make it impossible for odor
to be conveyed long distance. 1t is
a fact, however upon which every
body agrees, that condor will invari-
ably arrive ut the death bed Of n mule
or sheep before the victim breathes
its last, although it will remain out
of range as long as human beings are
seen in the neighborhood. Although
the old song says,
Next comes the condor, awful bird,
On the mountains highest tops,
Has been known to eat up boys and
girls,
And then to lick its chops"
condors rarely attack children or any
other human beings. Hunters who
were working for the bounty used to
kill an old mule or horse and then
lie in ambush near the carcass. To
shoot it on the wing is entirely out
of the question, for il flies at attitudes
such as no other bird attains. The
condor matches it's young among snow
covered crags, often at an altitude 90
600 feet, and can endure a range of
temperature in which human existence
is impossible. 1t is equally at home
upon the snowy peaks and upon the
burning sands of the Chilean deserts
With a sweep of wing from nine to
twelve feet in extent, it's flight is so
swift that it can sail out of sight in a
very few moments. Observers have
timed the flight Of condor, and claim
that it is superior to that of an eagle.
Poisoning condors is said to be i'm
possible. A stomach that will relish
the carrion upon which it usually feeds
Is said to be proof against poison.
WILLIAM Il. CURTIS.