Scientific Intelligence — Zoology. 3tt9 



concealed under it, seizes the bird by the legs, and binds them fast 

 in the skin, as if in a bag, The captured condor flaps his wings, 

 and makes ineffectual attempts to fly ; but he is speedily secured, 

 and carried in triumph to the nearest village. 



The Indians quote numerous instances of young children having 

 been attacked by condors. That these birds are sometimes extremely 

 fierce is very certain. The following occurrence came within my 

 own knowledge whilst I was in Lima. J had a condor, which, when 

 he first came into my possession, was very young. To prevent his 

 escape, as soon as he was able to fly, he was fastened by the leg to a 

 chain, to which was attached a piece of iron of about six pounds 

 weight. He had a large court to range in, and he dragged the 

 piece of iron about after him all day. When he was a year and a 

 half old he flew away, with the chain and iron attached to his leg, 

 and perched on the spire of Santo Tomas, whence he was scared 

 away by the carrion hawks. On alighting in the street, a negro at- 

 tempted to catch him for the purpose of bringing him home ; upon 

 which he seized the poor creature by the ear, and tore it completely 

 off. He then attacked a child in the street (a negro boy of three 

 years old), threw him on the ground, and knocked him on the head 

 so severely with his beak, that the child died in consequence of the 

 injuries. I hoped to have brought this bird alive to Europe ; but 

 after being at sea two months on our homeward voyage, he died on 

 board the ship in the latitude of Monte Video. — (Travels in Peru^ 

 by J. J. Von Tschudi, p. 300.) 



25. Anatomical Researches on the Brilliancy of the Eyes 

 in Certain Vertebrata. By E. Brucke (Miiller's Archiv, 1845, 

 p. 387. — M. Brucke, in a preceding Memoir (Mull. Archiv, 1844), 

 had endeavoured to discover the use of the bdtonnets of the re- 

 tina. It is known that distant vision results from this, that all 

 the rays of light emanating from a point of space, gaain con- 

 verge on a point of the retina. In order to satisfy this condition, 

 it is necessary that the luminous rays which have traversed the 

 expansion of the optic nerve should either be entirely absorbed by 

 the choroid, or rather reflected in such a way as again to strike with 

 precision the nervous fibre they have already traversed. The choroid, 

 by its black colour, is eminently fitted to absorb the luminous rays. 

 This absorbing power is probably increased by the inequality of its 

 surface, caused by the presence of transparent bdtonnets and their 

 conical prolongations which penetrate between the cells of the pig- 

 ment. But, in certain vertebrata, we find a tapetum which, far from 

 absorbing the light, reflects it strongly. In this case, these baton- 

 nets, ananged as they are perpendicularly to the surface of the 

 rethia, serve perhaps to insulate the rays of light, and to direct them, 

 after their reflection from the tapetum, exactly on the same fibres 

 which they have traversed. We can thus understand why the tape- 

 tum does not injure vision, and why the animals whose eyes are pro- 



VOL. XLIl. NO. LXXXIV. — APRIL 1847. 2 C 



