Page:Condor9(2).djvu/14

44 June 2, on my way home I found two more thrashers' nests. Both had been scenes of violence or disturbance and were deserted. One contained three eggs partly incubated and then dried, while the other had three eggs simply rotten, without any sign of incubation. One nest was in a sage, the other in a grease-wood and both about two feet from the ground. There was no clue to the cause of either catastrophe.

Of the seven new nests found, three had been disturbed and probably the matrons of the last two were killed. I offer no solution as to what was the disturbing element. I did not hear the birds sing at all and they seemed rather retiring in disposition, tho not particularly wild. They left the nest quietly in thrasher-fashion on the opposite side of the bush when I was a few feet distant. In no case except when I caught one of the young that had left the nest did they show any parental concern. In nesting as well as in migrating they seem to have a go-as-you-please gait. During the three days observation I saw incomplete sets of fresh eggs, sets partly incubated, deserted nests and eggs, and young birds grown and partly grown.

Fort Lewis, Colorado.

 

COLLECTING party composed of Mr. H. T. Martin of the University of Kansas and myself, then a recent graduate of that school, spent the latter part of 1903 and the early half of 1904 in southern Argentina, the greater part of the time in Patagonia. It has been known as far back as Darwin's time that rich fossil beds exist in this country. The reading of the reports of three fossil-hunting expeditions to Patagonia, made by the late J. B. Hatcher of Princeton, led us to go to this field, where many rare and interesting specimens rewarded the party's efforts.

The pampa, or great central plateau of Patagonia, extends from the foothills of the Andes to the Atlantic coast where it ends by an almost perpendicular fall of three to five hundred feet to the seashore. The waves and currents continually undermine the cliffs and the waters wash away the fragments and debris where they fall below. While prospecting for fossils in these barrancas, as the cliffs are called, near the mouth of the Rio Gallegos (52 S. Lat.) condors were frequently seen flying about the tops of the cliffs and over the plain.

My previous interest in the South American condor (Sarcorhamphus gryphus) had been aroused by numerous descriptions which I had read of its marvelous powers of flight, and my first thoughts on seeing the bird in the freedom of its native habitat were to verify the statements of early observers. Time and again I found myself prone on my back intent on this feathered giant as he wheeled and turned in majestic circles and curves without the slightest apparent effort until he disappeared on the horizon or I tired of watching him.

As our camp was moved from time to time to facilitate our work we had a good opportunity to examine the barrancas thoroly and at last encamped near a point about which a pair of condors were seen almost daily, our attention being