This bird
is known to have a wide geographical range, being found on the west
coast of South America, from the Strait of Magellan along the
Cordillera as far as eight degrees north of the equator. The steep
cliff near the mouth of the Rio Negro is its northern limit on the
Patagonian coast; and they have there wandered about four hundred
miles from the great central line of their habitation in the Andes.
Further south, among the bold precipices at the head of Port
Desire, the condor is not uncommon; yet only a few stragglers
occasionally visit the sea-coast. A line of cliff near the mouth of
the Santa Cruz is frequented by these birds, and about eighty miles
up the river, where the sides of the valley are formed by steep
basaltic precipices, the condor reappears. From these facts, it
seems that the condors require perpendicular cliffs. In Chile, they
haunt, during the greater part of the year, the lower country near
the shores of the Pacific, and at night several roost together in
one tree; but in the early part of summer they retire to the most
inaccessible parts of the inner Cordillera, there to breed in
peace.
With respect to their propagation, I was told by the country people
in Chile that the condor makes no sort of nest, but in the months
of November and December lays two large white eggs on a shelf of
bare rock.
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