20 ACCIPITRES. 



which they feed. Others (CafJiartcs) are migrator}-, 

 and are found scattered over the various parts of 

 the American continent, the West Indies, and the 

 Falkland Islands, where they' may be often seen at 

 a great height, wheeling round and round, and per- 

 forming the most graceful evolutions. Here, like- 

 wise, they devour dead carcases, and every kind of 

 filth, during the hot season ; while those that inhabit 

 the sea-coasts and islands, subsist on dead seals and 

 various kinds of refuse, cast up by the waves : 

 small animals, how^ever, and eggs, more especially 

 those of alligators, also form- a portion of their food. 



The typical species, and the giant of the race, is — 



The Condor {Sarcoramj)hus Gryj^hus)^" generally re- 

 garded as the largest of predaceoiis birds. The name 

 Sarcoramphus is derived from the circnmstance that the 

 head of the male, in addition to a broad fleshy crest, 

 which extends over the top of its head, has another 

 beneath its beak, somewhat resembling tlie wattles of tlie 

 barn-door fowl. The nostrils are pierced completely 

 through the fleshy cere from side to side ; the skm of the 

 head and neck is quite naked, and thrown into voluminous 

 folds, while round the base of the neck is a frill of white 

 feathers. 



The Condor has been rendered celebrated by exagge- 

 rated accounts of its size and ferocity. It is, in reality, 

 not much larger than the Lammer Geyer of Euroj^e, 

 which it also resembles in its habits. It frequents the 

 highest mountains of the Cordilleras of the Andes, in 

 South America. Of all birds its flight is the most lofty ; 

 and even the situation tliat it chooses for its breeding- 

 place varies from 10,000 to 15,000 feet above the level of 

 the sea. These birds generally live in pans ; but among 

 the inland basaltic clifl>^ of Santa Cruz they sometimes 

 collect together in great numbers ; and it is a grand spec- 

 tacle to see twenty or thirty of them start heavily from 

 their resting-places and wheel away in majestic cncles. 

 So aerial and buoyant is their flight, that except when 

 rising from the ground they are scarcely ever observed to 

 move their wings. 



* Gryplius, a griffin, from ypv-iroc;, grypos, having a lioolied beak. 



