2 • BULLETIN" 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



rocky slope, climbing over the rocks and clawing our way over 

 or around cliffs, for an hour and a half, until we reached a huge, 

 irregular boulder perched on the shoulder of the mountain, near the 

 top. Under tliis boulder, in more or less remote cavities, were three 

 old nesting sites of the California condor, one of which was quite 

 open and visible from the outside. L. G. Peyton said that the con- 

 dors had not nested under this rock for several years, but the nests 

 smelled and looked as if they had been occupied more recently. I 

 brought home three large black feathers as trophies. (PI. 2.) 



The California condor has never enjoyed a wide distribution, being 

 confined mainly to the hot interior valleys and mountains of Cali- 

 fornia, west of the Sierra Nevada. It formerly ranged north to the 

 Columbia Kiver and even Vancouver Island, as a straggler ; its range 

 also extended south into northern Lower California. With the 

 spread of civilization in California its numbers have been steadily 

 reduced and its range gradually restricted to the few remote locali- 

 ties where it is still found. Several of the earlier writers on Cali- 

 fornia birds noted the alarming decrease and predicted its early 

 extinction. I doubt if it was ever an abundant species, as compared 

 with the other vultures, although "Dr. Canfield informed Dr. Cooper 

 that he has seen as many as one hundred and fifty of these birds at 

 one time and place in the vicinity of antelopes he had killed" (Baird, 

 Brewer, and Eidgway). William R. Flint wrote to Major Bendire 

 (1892) : "The largest number I have ever seen at one time during 

 late years was in the summer of 1884, when I saw fourteen together." 

 Major Bendire himself had seen "from six to fifteen on several occa- 

 sions" in Inyo County. Mrs. Bailey (1902) says that "in 1894 Mr. 

 Stephens actually encountered a flock of twenty-six of these mag- 

 nificent birds." I was told of 17 being seen at one time recently in 

 Ventura County. The birds seem to be holding their own in certain 

 restricted localities and might survive permanently if rigidly pro- 

 tected and if poisoning were stopped. 



Nesting. — For most of our information on the home life of the 

 condor we are indebted to William L. Finley (1906), who found 

 a nest in the mountains of southern California on March 10, 190G; 

 by making many subsequent visits to it, he gave us a very interesting 

 life history study of this species. He describes the nest as follows: 

 "We climbed to the rock above and found it was a huge bowlder 

 set well into the mountain. Against this was leaning a big stone 

 slab about ten feet high. This left a space about two by six feet 

 and open at each end. This cave was lined with leaves and fine rock 

 and in the middle was one big egg. We thought it was not far from 

 hatching by its glossy surface and the tenacity with which the 

 mother stayed on her nest." 



