BIRDS OF PREY. 161 



be given to the eagle, but to the bird which figures in the " Thou- 

 sand and One Nights " under the name of Roc, the condor, the giant 

 of gigantic mountains, the Cordilleras. It is the largest of the 

 vultures — is, fortunately, the rarest — and the most destructive, as it 

 feeds only on live prey. Wlien it meets with a large animal, it so 

 gorges itself with meat that it is unable to stir, and may then be 

 killed with a few blows of a stick. 



To judge these species truly we must examine the eyrie of the 

 eagle, the rude, ill-constructed platform which serves for its nest ; 

 compare this rough and clumsy work — I do not say with the delicate 

 chef-d'oeuvre of a chaffinch's nest — but with the constructions of 

 insects, the excavations of ants, where the industrious workman 

 varies his art to infinity, and displays a genius so singular in its 

 foresight and resources. 



The traditional esteem which man cherishes for the courage of the 

 great Raptores is much diminished when we read, in Wilson, that 

 a tiny Ijird, a fly-catcher, such as the purple martin, will hunt the 

 great black eagle, pursue it, harass it, banish it from its district, give 

 it not a moment's repose. It is a truly extraordinary spectacle to see 

 this little hero, adding all his weight to his strength, that he may 

 make the greater impression, rise and let himself drop from the clouds 

 on the back of the large robber, mount witliout letting go, and prick 

 him forward with his beak in lieu of a spur. 



Without going so far as America, you may see, in the Jardin des 

 Plantes, the ascendancy of the little over the gi'eat, of mind over 

 matter, in the singular tete-a-tete of the gypaetus and the crow. The 

 latter, a very feeble animal, and the feeblest of birds of prey, which 

 in his black garb has the air of a pedagogue, labours hard to civilize 

 his brutal fellow-prisoner, the gypaetus. It is amusing to observe 

 how he teaches him to play — humanizes him, so to speak — by a hun- 

 dred tricks of his own invention, and refines his rude nature. Tliis 

 comedy is performed with special distinction when the crow has a 

 reasonable number of spectators. It has appeared to me that he disdains 

 to exhibit his savoir-faire before a single eye-witness. He calculates 



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