in its diurnal sleep and dragged forth to the light, its helpless movements excite compassion; it gropes about as if blind, and lays hold of the first object that comes within its reach, often pressing its face against it to escape the intolerable glare. The darkest corner of the hut is its seat of predilection, where it lies during day in a perfect asphyxia, from which it can only be roused by blows. But soon after sunset it leaves its retreat, and then it is impossible to see a more lively, active, and merry creature. From hammock it springs to hammock, generally licking the faces of the sleepers, and from the floor to the rafters of the roof, overturning all that is not sufficiently fastened to resist its curiosity." Its voice is remarkably strong, and, according to Humboldt, is said to resemble the jaguar's roar, for which reason it is called the Tiger Monkey in the missions along the Orinoco. It lives chiefly on nocturnal insects, thinning their ranks like the bat, but is also said to prey upon small birds like the owl.

The Ouistitis, or Squirrel Monkeys, are distinguished from all the other American quadrumana by the claws with which all their fingers except the thumbs of their hands are provided, and which render them excellent service in climbing. They have a very soft fur, and are extremely light and graceful in their movements, as well as elegant in their forms. The young are often not bigger than a mouse, and even a full grown ouistiti is hardly larger than a squirrel, whom it resembles both in its mode of life, and by its restless activity, as its little head is never quiet. They use their tail, which in many species is handsomely marked by transverse bars, as a protection against the cold, to which they are acutely sensitive. Their numerous species are dispersed over all the forests of tropical America, where they live as well upon fruits and nuts as upon insects and eggs; and when they can catch a little bird, they suck its brain with all the satisfaction of an epicure. They are easily tamed, but very suspicious and irritable. Audouin made some interesting observations on a pair of tame ouistitis, which prove their intelligence to be far superior to that of the squirrels, to whom they are so often compared. One of them having one day, while regaling on a bunch of grapes, squirted some of the juice into its eye, never failed from that time to close its eyes while eating of the fruit. In a drawing they recognized not only their own likeness, but that of other animals. Thus the sight of a cat, and what is still more remarkable, that of a wasp, frightened them very much, while at the aspect of any other insect, such as a cricket or a cockchafer, they at once rushed upon the engraving, as if anxious to make a meal of the object that deluded them with the semblance of life.

CHAPTER XIV.

TROPICAL BEASTS AND BIRDS OF PREY.

Variety of Carnivorous Creatures.-Birds of Prey: The Condor-His Marvelous Flight-His Cowardice-Modes of Capturing them-The Turkey-Buzzard, or Carrion Vulture-The King of the Vultures-The Urubu-Capable of Domestication-The Harpy EagleThe Sociable Vulture-The Bacha-The Fishing Eagle-The Musical Sparrow-HawkThe Secretary Eagle.-Beasts of Prey: The Lion-Fictitious Character ascribed to him -Mode of Seizing his Prey-Lions and Giraffe-Lion and Hottentot-Andersson and a Lion-Livingstone's narrow Escape-Lion-Hunting in the Atlas-By the Bushmen-Capturing their Young-Former and present Range of the Lion-Lion and RhinocerosLivingstone's Estimate of the Lion-The Tiger-Their Ravages in Java-Wide Range of the Tiger-Tiger-Hunting in India-Escape from a Tiger-Animals announcing the Approach of a Tiger-Turtle-hunting Tigers-The Panther and Leopard-The CheetahThe Hyena-The Spotted and Brown Hyenas-The Felidæ of New World-The Jaguar -Hunting the Jaguar-The Cougar, or Puma-The Ocelot-The Jaguarandi-The Tiger-Cat.

A

LMOST all birds and a considerable proportion of animals are carnivorous, and notwithstanding their differences in size, may be strictly designated as Birds and Beasts of Prey. The fox and weasel are as strictly beasts of prey as the lion and the tiger; the sparrow and robin, although seeds and fruit form part of their food, are as truly birds of prey as the eagle and the vulture. A sparrow will, indeed, in the course. of a single day, probably destroy more individual living creatures than an eagle will in his whole life-time; a fox in a year more than a lion in the half century which he is supposed to live. We shall here, however, confine ourselves wholly to the larger species of birds and beasts of prey, commencing with the former.

The flight of the Condor is truly wonderful. From the mountain-plains of the Andes, the royal bird, soaring aloft, appears only like a small black speck on the sky, and a few hours afterwards he descends to the coast and mixes his loud screech with the roar of the surf. No living creature rises voluntarily so high, none traverses in so short a time all the climates of the globe. He rests at night in the crevices of the rocks, or on some jutting ledge; but as soon as the first rays of the sun light the summits of the mountains, while the darkness of night still rests upon the deeper valleys, he stretches forth his neck, shakes his head as if fully to rouse himself, stoops over the brink of the abyss, and flapping his wings, dives into the aerial ocean. At first his flight is by no means strong; he sinks as if borne down by his weight, but soon he ascends, and sweeps through the rarified atmosphere without any perceptible vibratory motion of the wings. Near Lima," says Mr. Darwin, "I watched several condors for nearly half an hour without once taking off my eyes. They moved in large curves, sweeping in circles, descending and ascending without once flapping.

As they glided close over my head, I intently watched from an oblique position the outlines of the separate and terminal feathers of the wing; if there had been the least vibratory movement these would have blended together, but they were seen distinct against the blue sky. The head and neck were moved frequently and apparently with force, and it appeared that the extended wings formed the fulcrum on which the movements of the neck, body, and tail acted. If the bird wished to descend, the wings were for a moment collapsed, and then, when again expanded with an altered inclination, the momentum gained by the rapid descent seemed to urge the bird upwards with the even and steady movement of a paper kite."

According to Humboldt and D'Orbigny, the condor is a contemptible coward, whom the stick of a child is able to put to flight. Far from venturing to attack any fullgrown, larger animal-the llama, the ox, or even man, as former travelers asserted— he feeds, like other vultures, only upon dead carcasses, or on new-born lambs, and calves, whom he tears from the side of their mothers. He thus does so much damage to the herds, that the shepherds pursue and kill him whenever they can. As even a bullet frequently glances off from his thick feathery coat, the natives never use firearms for his destruction, but make use of various traps, of the sling, or of the bolas, which they are able to throw with such marvelous dexterity. In the Peruvian province of Abacay, an Indian provided with cords conceals himself under a fresh cow's skin, to which some pieces of flesh are left attached. The condors soon pounce upon the prey, but while they are feasting he fastens their legs to the skin. This being accomplished, he suddenly comes forth, and the alarmed birds vainly flap their wings, for other Indians hurry towards them, throw their mantles or their lassos over them, and carry the condors to their village, where they are reserved for the next bull-fight. For a full week before this spectacle is to take place, the bird gets nothing to eat, and is then bound upon the back of a bull which has previously been scarified with lances. The bellowing of the poor animal, lacerated by the famished vulture, and vainly endeavoring to cast off its tormentor, amuses what may well be called the “swinish multitude." In the province of Huarochirin there is a large natural funnel-shaped excavation, about sixty feet deep, with a diameter of about eighty feet at the top. A dead mule is placed on the brink of the precipice. The tugging of the condors at the dead carcass causes it to fall into the hole; they follow it with greedy haste, and having gorged themselves with food, are unable again to rise from the narrow bottom of the funnel. Tschudi saw the Indians kill at once, with sticks, twenty-eight of the birds which had been thus entrapped. In a somewhat similar manner condors are caught in Peru, Bolivia, and Chili, as far as their range extends, and are frequently brought to Valparaiso and Callao, where they are sold for a few dollars to the foreign ships, and thence conveyed to Europe.

The condor, though a very large bird, about four feet long, and measuring at least three yards from tip to tip of his extended wings, is far from attaining the dimensions assigned to him by the earlier writers and naturalists, who, emulating Sindbad the Sailor, in his account of the roc, described him as a giant whose bulk darkened the air. Fortunately the works of nature do not require the exaggerations of fiction to be rendered interesting, and the marvels of organic nature which scientific inquiries reveal are far more wonderful than any which romancers may' it invent.

While the condor is considered an enemy to man, the Gallinazos, Turkey-buzzards,

or common American Carrion Vultures (Vultur aura, V. urubu), are very serviceable to him, by consuming the animal offals which, if left to putrefaction, would produce at pestilence. Thus they generally, in tropical America, enjoy the protection of the law, a heavy fine, amounting in some towns to $300, being imposed upon the offender who wantonly kills one of these scavengers. It is consequently not to be wondered at that, like domestic birds, they congregate in flocks in the streets of Lima, and sleep upon the roofs of the houses. In 1808, Waterton saw the vultures in Angostura as tame as barn-fowls; a person who had never seen one would have taken them for turkeys. They were very useful to the citizens; had it not been for them, the refuse of the slaughter-houses would have caused an intolerable nuisance. The Aura is darkbrown black, with a red and naked head and neck, covered with wrinkles and warts; the Urubu is very similar, only the head and neck are gray-black, but equally wrinkled and ugly. The latter ranges over South America in countless numbers, as D'Orbigny witnessed on a visit to a hacienda on the river Plata, where 12,000 oxen had been killed for salting. During this wholesale massacre, which lasted several months, the bones and entrails were cast along the banks of the stream, where at least 10,000 urubus had congregated to enjoy the banquet. It is a remarkable fact that, though hundreds of gallinazos may be feeding upon a carcase, they immediately retire when the King of the Vultures (Sarcoramphus papa) makes his appearance, who yet is not larger than themselves. Perching on the neighboring trees, they wait till his majesty -a beautiful bird, with head and neck gaudily colored with scarlet, orange, blue, brown and white-has sufficiently gorged himself, and then pounce down with increased voracity upon their disgusting meal. According to Humboldt, they are intimidated by the greater boldness of the sarcoramphus. The true reason of their homage, however, seems to be the fear they entertain for the more powerful beak of the "king," who, from a similar motive, gives way to the still mightier condor.

The Indians of Guiana sometimes amuse themselves with catching one of the urubus by means of a piece of meat attached to a hook, and decking him with a variety of strange feathers, which they attach to him with soft wax. Thus travestied, they turn him out again among his comrades, who, to their great delight, fly in terror from the nondescript; and it is only after wind and weather have stripped him of his finery that the outlaw is once more admitted into urubu society. When full of food this vulture, like the other members of his tribe, certainly appears an indolent bird. He will stand for hours together on the branch of a tree, or on the top of a house, with his wings drooping, or after rain, spreading them to catch the rays of the sun. But when in quest of prey, he may be seen soaring aloft on pinions which never flutter, and which at the same time carry him with a rapidity equal to that of the golden eagle. Scarcely has he espied a piece of carrion below, when, folding his broad wings, he descends with such speed as to produce a whistling sound, resembling that of an arrow cleaving the air.

The gallinazos when taken young can be so easily tamed that they will follow the person who feeds them for many miles. Relying on their inviolability, the gallinazos, like chartered libertines, are uncommonly bold, and during the distributions of meat to the Indians, which regularly take place every fortnight in the South American Missions, they not seldom come in for their share by dint of impudence. In Concepcion de Mojos, an Indian told M. D'Orbigny, who was present on one of those occasions,

that he would soon have the opportunity of seeing a most notorious thief, well known by his lame leg; and the bird, making his appearance soon after, completely justified his reputation. The traveler was also informed that this urubu knew perfectly well the days of distribution in the different missions; and eight days later, while witnessing a similar scene at Magdalena, twenty leagues distant, he heard the Indians exclaim, and looking up saw his lame acquaintance of Concepcion hurrying to the spot, with the anxious mien of one that is afraid of missing a meal. The padres in both missions assured him that the vulture never failed to make his appearance at the stated time; a remarkable instance of memory, or highly developed instinct in a bird. "If you dissect a vulture," says Waterton, "that has just been feeding on carrion, you must expect that your olfactory nerves will be somewhat offended with the rank effluvia from his craw, just as they would be were you to dissect a citizen after the lord-mayor's dinner. If, on the contrary, the vulture be empty at the time you commence the operation, there will be no offensive smell, but a strong scent of musk.”

The Harpy Eagle (Thrasaëtus harpyia) is one of the finest of all the rapacious birds. The enormous development of his beak and legs, and his consequent strength and power in mastering his prey, correspond with his bold and noble bearing, and the fierce lustre of his eye. His whole aspect is that of formidably organized power, and even the crest adds much to his terrific appearance. "Among many singular birds and curiosities," says Mr. Edwards, in his "Voyage up the Amazon,' ""that were brought to us, was a young harpy eagle, a most ferocious looking character, with a harpy's crest and a beak and talons in correspondence. He was turned loose into the garden, and before long gave us a sample of his powers. With erected crest and flashing eyes, uttering a frightful shriek, he pounced upon a young ibis, and quicker than thought had torn his reeking liver from his body. The whole animal world there was wild with fear."

The harpy attains a greater size than the common eagle. He chiefly resides in the damp lowlands of tropical America, where Prince Maximilian of Neu Wied met with him only in the dense forests, perched on the high branches. The monkey, vaulting by means of his tail from tree to tree, mocks the pursuit of the tiger-cat and boa, but woe to him if the harpy spies him out, for, seizing him with lightning-like rapidity, he cleaves his skull with one single stroke of his beak. Fear seems to be totally unknown to this noble bird, and he defends himself to the last moment. D'Orbigny relates that one day, while descending a Bolivian river in a boat with some Indians, they severely wounded a harpy with their arrows, so that it fell from the branch on which it had been struck. Stepping out of the canoe, the savages now rushed to the spot where the bird lay, knocked it on the head, and tearing out the feathers of its wings, brought it for dead to the boat. Yet the harpy awakened from his trance, and furiously attacked his persecutors. Throwing himself upon D'Orbigny, he pierced his hand through and through with the only talon that had been left unhurt, while the mangled remains of the other tore his arm, which at the same time he lacerated with his beak. Two men were hardly able to release the naturalist from the attacks of the ferocious bird.

On turning from the New to the Old World, we find other but not less interesting predatory birds sweep through the higher regions of the air in quest of prey. The gigantic oricou, or Sociable Vulture (Vultur auricularis), inhabits the greater part of