10 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



colored head may be seen. Young birds have darker under wing 

 coverts and dusky heads and necks. 



Enemies. — The condor has no enemies of consequence except man; 

 and man has gone a long way toward the extermination of this grand 

 species. It seems to be a common trait in human nature to want to 

 kill any large creature, and in the early days when these birds were 

 unsophisticated many were wantonly killed. Poisoned carcasses set 

 out to destroy predatory animals killed a great many of them. Many 

 condors were killed for their quills, which were useful for carrying 

 gold dust. In the early days it was easy to kill them with a rifle or 

 even with a shotgun loaded with buckshot. Sometimes, when gorged 

 with food, they could be lassoed or even killed with some missile 

 thrown at them. Mr. Shields (1895) says: 



Among tlie latter contrivances for their destruction, one of the most fre- 

 quently employed was "penning." This consisted of four-sided portable pens 

 about six feet square and five in height. These were placed in convenient 

 localities with the carcass of. a sheep or goat temptingly displayed within ; the 

 voracious bird would soon spy the tempting morsel, and settle down for a feast, 

 but when he came to rise it was different, as the small diameter of the pen 

 absolutely prevented the full stretching of his wings, and, being unable to 

 make the upright leap of four or five feet, he was a secure prisoner and an 

 easy prey to the herder and his club, when making the rounds of his traps. It 

 was strange that this bird, so conspicuously wary at the present time, should in 

 those days have manifested so little of that quality, as certain it is that the 

 traps would constantly claim their victims practically as long as the birds 

 held out. 



There is a modern menace in the high-tension power lines, on which 

 many large birds are electrocuted by making a contact across the 

 wires when they spread their wings. As I have not seen such casual- 

 ties mentioned, perhaps the condors have not learned to alight on 

 such dangerous perches. Public sentiment now seems to favor the 

 condor, and, as it is protected by law, we hope it will long continue to 

 survive in the wilder portions of California, as one of the many glories 

 of the Golden State. 



Carroll Dewilton Scott has sent me the following interesting notes 

 on the condor-killing ceremony practiced in primitive times by the 

 southern California Indians, as one of several mourning festivals : 



Three birds were used as convenience dictated, the bald and golden eagles 

 and the California condor. One idea back of the ceremony was that the spirits 

 of the dead, especially the spirits of children, could mount to the Indian's 

 heaven on the wings of great filers like the eagle and the condor. Another was 

 that the bird was a messenger from the living to the dead. Though an authentic 

 and picturesque incident in the life history of the condor, there is no evidence 

 that it played the least part in the destruction of condors that took place mainly 

 between 1875 and 1S95, when Americans were rapidly settling the State. 



The essential part of the ceremony was as follows: The Indians gathered 

 around a campfire in the evening. Groups of 10 or 20 Indians, under leaders 



