THE VULTURES. 



THE COXDOR.* 



The most celebrated species of the Aiilture tribe is the formidable Condor, whom an 

 iVmerican poet (Mrs. Ellett) thiis appropriately addresses : — 



" AVoiidrous, majestic bii-d ! whose mighty -wing 

 Dwells not with pmiy warblers of the spring ; 



Nor on earth's silent breast — 

 Powerful to soar in strength and pride on high, 

 And sweep the azure bosom of the sky — 



Chooses its place of rest. 



Proud nursling of the tempest ! where repose 

 Thy pinions at the daj'light's fading close ? 



In what far clime of night 

 Dost thou in silence, breathless, and alone — 

 "While round thee swells of life no Idndi'ed tone — 



Suspend thy tireless flight ? 



The mountain's fi'ozcn peak is lone and bai'e. 

 No foot of man hath ever rested there; — ■ 



Yet 'tis thy sport to soar 

 Far o'er its frowning summit — and the plain 

 AVould seek to -n-in thy downward wing in vain, 



Or the gi-eeu sea-bent shore. 



The limits of thy coui'sc no daring eye 



Has marked ; — thj' glorious path of Ught on high 



Is trackless and unknown ; 

 The gorgeous sun thy quenchless gaze may share ; 

 Sole tenant of his boundless i-ealm of air. 



Thou art, with him, alone. 



Imperial wanderer ! the storms that shake 



Earth's towers, and bid her rooted mountains quake, 



Arc never felt by thee ! 

 Beyond the bolt — beyond the lightning's gleam. 

 Basking for ever in the unclouded beam, — 



Thy home — immensity ! " 



The name of this bird is derived from the Qquichua language, the general tongue of 

 the ancient Incas. So rich is this langtiage, that it has three neuter verbs which exjjress 

 to smell ; that is generally, to smell well, and to smcU disagrecablj' ; and to the second 

 of these it is traced by Himiboldt, as there is " nothing more astonishing," he says, 

 " than the almost inconceivable sagacity -s^-ith which the condor distinguishes the odour 

 of flesh from an immense distance." 



The j'otmg condor has no feathers, the body being covered, for many months, with a 

 very fine down, or a frizzled whitish hair. At two j^ears old it is of a fawn-coloured 

 brown ; and up to this period the female has not the white collar, called by the 

 Spaniards golilfa, which is formed at the bottom of the neck by feathers longer than the 

 others. For want of observing this difference, the natiu'aHsts of Peru, who discover, 

 however, but little interest in ornithology, have spoken of two sj)ecies, the black and the 

 brown. At Eiobamba, in the en\'irons of Chimborazo and Antizana, the himters are 



* Sarcorhamphus Gryphus. 



