ing effects, it is immediately in a condition to soar to such a pitch as, in spite of its magnitude, to become invisible to human sight.

In captivity, it appears to have no other desire, than that of obtaining its regular supply of food. So long as that is afforded it, it manifests a perfect indifference to the circumstances in which it is placed.

THAT the vulgar opinion of the immense size and ferocity of this, the largest of the American birds of prey, should have extended its influence over the minds even of scientific zoologists, can scarcely be regarded as affording

1 Cathartes gryphus, TEMMINCK. The genus Cathartes has the beak long, compressed, straight, bent towards the point; cere naked, covering more than half the beak; upper mandible turned towards the point; head oblong, naked, as well as the upper part of the neck; nostrils in the middle of the bill, near the ridge of the upper mandible, longitudinally cleft, broad, sometimes surmounted by fleshy appendages; legs with tarsus naked, more or less slender; middle toe long, and united to the exterior one at the base.

just grounds of surprise, when we consider how very imperfectly the condor was known to naturalists down to the commencement of the present century. Twenty years ago, one or two mutilated specimens formed the only memorials of its existence, in the cabinets of Europe; and all our knowledge of the living bird was derived from the relations of travellers, for the most part but little conversant with natural history, many of whom merely repeated, without examination, such stories as they found current; while others, less scrupulous or more fanciful, drew on their invention for those additional traits which they considered necessary to render the imaginary likeness perfect. Thus, the condor of the Andes was compared to the fabled roc, of Eastern mythology; and this monstrous fabrication of ignorant credulity was declared to be fully equalled, if not surpassed, by the stupendous native of the western hemisphere.

But it was reserved for one of the most scientific of modern travellers, the learned Baron Von Humboldt, completely to dispel the mist of prejudice, which had so long enveloped the history of the condor, and to describe that bird such as it really exists; to reduce its dimensions, its powers, and its propensities, within their just and natural limits, and to exhibit a faithful and highly interesting portrait in the place of an extravagant and grossly exaggerated caricature.

The condor forms the type of a genus, a second species of which is the king of the vultures, of British writers. They are both peculiar to the New World, but approach, in their most essential characters, very closely to the vultures of the Old Continent, differing from the latter principally in the large fleshy, or rather cartilaginous caruncle, which surmounts their beaks; in the large size of their oval and longitudinal nostrils, placed almost at the very extremity of the cere; and in the comparative length of their quill feathers, the third being the longest of the series. The most important of these differences, the size and position of their nostrils, appears to be well calculated to add to the already highly powerful sense of smell possessed by the typical vultures, and for which these birds have been almost proverbially celebrated from the earliest ages. There is also a third species, the Californian vulture, rivalling the condor in bulk, and agreeing, in every respect, with the generic characters of the group, except in the existence of the caruncle, of which they are entirely destitute.

In size the condor is little, if at all, superior to the bearded griffin, the lammergeyer of the Alps, with which Buffon was disposed conjecturally to confound it, but to which it bears at most but a distant relation. The greatest authentic measurement scarcely carries the extent of its wings beyond fourteen feet, and it appears rarely to attain so gigantic a size. M. Humboldt met with none that exceeded nine feet, and was assured by many credible inhabitants of the province of Quito, that they had never shot any that measured more than eleven. The length of a male specimen, somewhat less than nine feet in expanse, was three feet three inches from

the tip of the beak to the extremity of the tail; and its height, when perching, with the neck partly withdrawn, two feet eight inches. Its beak was two inches and three quarters in length, and an inch and a quarter in depth, when closed.

The beak of the condor is straight at the base, but the upper mandible becomes arched towards the point, and terminates in a strong and well curved hook. The basal half is of an ash brown, and the remaining portion towards the point is nearly white. The head and neck are bare of feathers, and covered with a hard, wrinkled, dusky reddish skin, on which are scattered some short brown or blackish hairs. On the top of the head, which is much flattened above, and extending some distance along the beak, is attached an oblong, firm caruncle, or comb, covered by a continuation of the skin which invests the head. This organ is peculiar to the male. It is connected to the beak only in its anterior part, and is separated from it at the base in such a manner as to allow of a free passage of the air to the large oval nostrils, which are situated beneath it at that part. Behind the eyes, which are somewhat elongated, and not sunk beneath the general surface of the head, the skin of the neck is, as it were, gathered into a series of descending folds, extending obliquely from the back of the head, over the temples, to the under side of the neck, and there connected anteriorly with a lax membrane or wattle, capable of being dilated at pleasure, like that of the common turkey. The neck is marked by numerous, deep parallel folds, produced by the habit of retracting the head, in which the bird indulges when at rest. In this position scarcely any part of the neck is visible.

Round the lower part of the neck, both sexes, the female as well as the male, are furnished with a broad white ruff, of downy feathers, which forms the line of separation between the naked skin above and the true feathers covering the body below it. All the other feathers, with the exception of the wing coverts and the secondary quill feathers, are of a bright black, generally mingled with a grayish tinge of greater or less intensity. In the female, the wing coverts are blackish gray; but the male has their points, and frequently as much as half their length, white. The wings of the latter are consequently distinguished from those of the female by their large white patches. The secondary quill feathers of both sexes are white on the outer side. The tail is short and wedge-shaped. The legs are excessively thick and powerful, and are colored of a bluish gray, intermingled with whitish streaks. Their elongated toes are united at the base by a loose but very apparent membrane, and are terminated by long, black talons, of considerable thickness, but very little curved. The hinder toe is much shorter than the rest; and its talon, although more distinctly curved, is equally wanting in strength; a deficiency which renders the foot much less powerful as an organ of prehension than that of any other of the large birds of the raptorial order.

The condor has been observed throughout the whole range of that immense chain of mountains which traverses the continent of South America, from the Straits of Magellan to the seventh degree of north latitude. It appears, however, to be much more common in Peru and Chili, than in any other part of the chain, and is most frequently met with at an elevation of from ten to fifteen thousand feet above the level of the ocean. Here, in⚫ the regions of perpetual snow, they may be seen grouped together to the number of three or four, but never in the large troops in which the true vultures sometimes assemble, on the bold points of the jutting rocks, many of the most remarkable of which are designated by the natives with names derived from the bird that haunts their pinnacles. It is only when driven by hunger, that it descends into the plains, which it quits as soon as its appetite is satiated, unable, as it would seem, to support for any great length of time the increased weight of the atmosphere and the warmer temperature of the lower world. On such occasions, it rarely perches on the branches of the trees, but generally takes up a position on the ground, for resting on which its comparatively straight talons are peculiarly fitted. It is said that the female bird builds no nest, but deposits its eggs upon the bare rock without protection of any kind. These eggs are stated to be perfectly white, and three or four inches in length. The female is also said to remain with her young for a whole year.

The habits of the condor partake of the bold ferocity of the eagle, and of the disgusting filthiness of the vulture. Although, like the latter, it appears to prefer the dead carcass, it frequently makes war upon a living prey; but the gripe of its talons is not sufficiently firm to enable it to carry off its victim through the air. Two of these birds, acting in concert, will frequently attack a puma, a llama, a calf, or even a full grown cow. They will pursue the poor animal with unwearied pertinacity, lacerating it incessantly with their beaks and talons, until it falls exhausted with fatigue and loss of blood. Then, having first seized upon its tongue, they proceed to tear out its eyes, and commence their feast with these favorite morsels.

The intestines form the second course of their banquet, which is usually continued until the birds have gorged themselves so fully as to render themselves incapable of using their wings in flight. The Indians, who are well acquainted with this effect of their voracity, are in the habit of turning it to account for their amusement in the chase. For this purpose they expose the dead body of a horse or a cow, by which some of the condors, which are generally hovering in the air in search of food, are speedily attracted. As soon as the birds have glutted themselves on the carcass, the Indians make their appearance, armed with the lasso, and the condors, being unable to escape by flight, are pursued and caught by means of these singular weapons with the greatest certainty. This sport is a peculiar favorite in the country, where it is held in a degree of estimation second to that of a bull-fight alone.

In tenacity of life, the condor exceeds almost every other bird. M. Humboldt relates that during his stay at Riobamba, he was present at some experiments which were made on one by the Indians who had taken it alive. They first strangled it with a lasso and hanged it on a tree, pulling it forcibly by the feet for several minutes; but scarcely was the lasso re⚫ moved, when the bird arose and walked about as though nothing had occurred to affect it. It was then shot with three balls, discharged from a pistol, at less than four paces, all of which entered its body, and wounded it in the neck, chest, and abdomen; it still, however, kept its legs. Another ball struck its thigh, and it fell to the ground. This was preserved by M. Bonpland, for a considerable time, as a memorial of the circumstance. Ulloa had previously asserted, that in the colder parts of Peru, the skin of the condor was so closely covered with feathers, that eight or ten balls might be heard to strike it without penetrating its body. M. Humboldt's bird did not die of its wounds until after an interval of half an hour.

The stories which have long been current, on the authority of credulous travellers, imputing to the condor a propensity to carry off young children, and even to attack men and women, appear to have originated solely in that common feeling which delights in regarding mere possibilities in the light of positive facts. M. Humboldt declares that he never heard of an instance in which a child was carried off; although the children of the Indians who collect the snow on the mountains for sale, are constantly left sleeping in the open air in the midst of these birds, and offer, of course, a temptation which would be irresistible if not counteracted by some peculiar instinct. With respect to the risk incurred by men, while he confesses that two of these birds would be dangerous enemies for a single man to encounter, he states that he has frequently approached them within ten or twelve feet, as they sat three or four together perched upon the rocks, and that they showed no disposition to attack him. The Indians of Quito, moreover, unanimously assured him that men have nothing to apprehend from the condors.

THE SOCIABLE VULTURE1

Is a bird of extreme rarity. It was first described by Le Vaillant, in his "Travels in the Interior of Africa," under the name of oricou; fancifully derived from the folding of the skin around its ears, and along its neck. A more detailed account of it was afterwards furnished by the same distinguished ornithologist, in his Oiseaux d'Afrique, where a full grown male is very accurately figured. We do not find that it has since been observed by

1 Vultur auricularis, DAUD.