30 



THE CONDOR. 



Rams may not be able to defend their .young-ones. They then pick 

 out the Lambs, and carry them off. Garcillasso says, there are some 

 Condors in Peru which measure sixteen feet from the point of one 

 wing to that of the other, and that a certain nation of Indians adore 

 them." 



These enormous animals make their nests among the highest and 

 meet inaccessible rocks. The female lays two white eggs, somewhat 

 larger than those of a Turkey, 



In the country which 

 they inhabit, they seem 

 to supply the place of 

 Wolves; and they are aa 

 much feared by the in- 

 habitants, as "Wolves are 

 in other climates. In con- 

 sequence of this, many 

 modes of destroying them 

 are adopted. Sometimes 

 a person, covering himself 

 with the hide of a newly 

 skinned animal, goes out^ 

 and so manages it, that 

 the bird is induced to 

 attack him in this dis- 

 guise; other persons that 

 have hidden themselves, 

 then come forward to hia 

 assistance ; and then all oi 

 them, at once falling on 

 the bird, overpower and 

 kill it. A dead carcass 

 is also sometimes put within a very high enclosure; and when the 

 Condor has satiated himself, and is unable to rise freely, persons are 

 in readiness to subdue him. On these latter occasions the bird ia 

 inactive; but in general he possesses a very quick flight, and fre- 

 quently soars to a height beyond the reach of human vision. Some- 

 times these birds are caught by means of traps and springes. 



It has generally been imagined, that the accounts of this dreadful 

 animal gave rise to the exaggerated description of the bird that makea 

 so conspicuous a figure in the Arabian Tales, under the name of Roc. 

 but this seems very improbable, as we have no satisfactory evidence 

 of ihe Condor having ever been found on the Old Continent. 1 he 

 traditions respecting the Eoc originated in a very different kind of 

 bird; a variety of the bearded Eagle, or the well-known Lanimer- 

 geyer of the Alps, which is occasionally seen among the mountains. 

 The preparations made by these birds for their young are extremely 

 slight; indeed, in most instances the two eggs laid by the female are 

 deposited upon the bare rock. When first hatched, the young are cov- 

 ered with a coat of grey down ; they grow but slowly, and remain under 

 the protection of their parents long after they are fully tiedged. 



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