358 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Sept. 



" He rewarked that probably no bird is so unfortuuate in the 

 hands of the curious and scientific as the Condor. Fifty years 

 have elapsed since the first specimen reached Europe, yet to-day 

 the exaggerated stories of its size and strength are repeated in 

 many of our text books, and the very latest ornithological work 

 leaves us in doubt as to its relation to the other vultures. No 

 one credits the assertion of the old geographer, Marco Paulo, that 

 the Condor can lift an elephant from the ground high enough to 

 kill it by the fall ; nor the story of the traveller, so late as 1830, 

 who declared that a Condor of moderate size, just killed, was 

 lying before him, a single quill feather of which was twenty paces 

 long. Yet the statement continues to be published that the 

 ordinary expanse of a full grown Condor, is from fifteen to 

 twenty feet, whereas it is very doubtful if it ever exceeds or even 

 equals twelve feet. I have a full grown male from the most 

 celebrated locality in the Andes, and the stretch of its wings is 

 nine feet. Humboldt never found one to measure over nine feet; 

 and the largest specimen which Darwin saw, was eight and one 

 half feet from tip to tip. An old male in the Zoological Gardens 

 of London, measures eleven feet. It is not yet settled that this 

 greatest of unclean birds is generically distinct from the other 

 great vultures. My own observation of the structure and habits 

 of the Condor, incline me to think it should stand alone. Asso- 

 ciated with the great Condor is a smaller vulture, having brown 

 or ash-colored plumage instead of black and white, a beak wholly 

 black instead of black at the base and white at the tip, and no 

 caruncle. In inhabits the high altitudes, and is rather common. 

 This was formerly thought to be a distinct species ; but lately 

 ornithologists have with one accord pronounced it the young of 

 the Sarcoramphus grypbus — a conclusion which the speaker did 

 nob seem wholly to endorse. 



As to the royal Condor, Professor Orton ofi"ered the following 

 observations, either new or corroborative : Its usual habitation is 

 between the altitudes of ten thousand and sixteen thousand feet. 

 The largest seem to make their home around the volcano of 

 Cayambi, which stands exactly on the Equator. In the rainy 

 season they frequently descend to the coast, where they may be 

 seen roosting on trees ; on the mountains they rarely perch, but 

 stand on the rocks. They are most commonly seen around 

 vertical clifi's, perhaps because their nests are there, and also 

 because cattle are likely to fall there. Flocks are never seen 



