The condors may oftentimes be seen at a great height, soaring over
a certain spot in the most graceful circles. On some occasions I am
sure that they do this only for pleasure, but on others, the
Chileno countryman tells you that they are watching a dying animal,
or the puma devouring its prey. If the condors glide down, and then
suddenly all rise together, the Chileno knows that it is the puma
which, watching the carcass, has sprung out to drive away the
robbers. Besides feeding on carrion, the condors frequently attack
young goats and lambs; and the shepherd-dogs are trained, whenever
they pass over, to run out, and looking upwards to bark violently.
The Chilenos destroy and catch numbers. Two methods are used; one
is to place a carcass on a level piece of ground within an
enclosure of sticks with an opening, and when the condors are
gorged, to gallop up on horseback to the entrance, and thus enclose
them: for when this bird has not space to run, it cannot give its
body sufficient momentum to rise from the ground. The second method
is to mark the trees in which, frequently to the number of five or
six together, they roost, and then at night to climb up and noose
them.
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