460 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



years, the Condor has been kept in his winter 

 cage throughout the year. At midnight on a 

 snowy winter's night I liave watched tliis bird 

 play by himself for a lialf hour in the moon- 

 light; dancing on the snow, throwing about one 

 of his own giant quills and chasing his shadow; 

 a strange performance explained in no natural 

 history, and one which seems all the more re- 

 markable when we think of this great vulture 

 as the accepted type of a slothful gourmand. 



The Condor in the Park is remarkably strong 

 and when it becomes necessary to transfer him. 

 three men are required to hold the great bird 

 fast in a wolf net. He refuses to touch carrion 

 but will cat fresh meat and fish. Like all vul- 

 tures, he has no grasjiing power in his feet and 

 claws, and thus his method of feeding is to 

 .stand upon his prey, take a firm grip with his 

 powerful hooked beak and pull strongly up- 

 ward until a small piece of flesh is torn away. 



Like other vultures, the flight of the Condor 

 is magnificent, soaring for hours, often hundreds 

 of feet above the highest snow-capped peaks of 

 its native mountains, or swiftly descending 

 thence to the distant speck which its marvellous 

 vision marks out as food. In contrast to others 

 of its family, the South American Condor seems 

 to possess certain predatory instincts. Several 

 individuals are said to band together at times 

 and, rushing at some animal standing near a 

 precipice, frighten it into stampeding to its 

 death, when the birds descend to feed upon its 

 body. This may be the result of the extremity 

 of hunger driving the birds to take desperate 

 measures to avoid starvation. 



The Condor lays one or two large white eggs 

 upon a narrow ledge of some inaccessible cliff. 

 Sixty-two years ago an egg was laid and in- 

 cubated in the Zoological Gardens of London — 

 the only recorded instance of this species breed- 

 ing in captivit}'. The chick hatched in fifty- 

 four days but lived only six weeks. From ob- 

 servations of young Condors it seems probable 

 that the nestling spends six or seven months in 

 the nest before it is able to fly. The great 

 wing quills of the Condor come into vogue now 

 and then in the millinery trade, and many thou- 

 sands of birds are slaughtered yearly to supply 

 this shameful demand. 



The courtship of the Condor begins about 

 the first of the year, and extends through- 

 out February. Lacking a mate of his own kind, 

 the bird in our collection shows off to the female 

 griffon vultures or bald eagles. He half raises 

 his splendid wings, curving them around so that 

 all the white markings are brought into view ; 

 then he struts back and forth before the object 

 of his attentions. The head is brought forward 



KING VULTURE, FEMALE. 



and downward wliile the neck is strained up- 

 ward in a pronounced curve, the colors of the 

 skin showing brightly at this season. Succes- 

 sive hisses are uttered, the spasmodic exhalation 

 of the breath vibrating throughout the whole 

 bird. At last, with a final prolonged hiss, he 

 sinks down upon his tarsus, closes his wings and 

 the performance is over. Although his eyes are 

 open during the display, he seems in a kind of 

 trance, and takes no notice of what goes on 

 around him. 



The strange attitudes which this bird often 

 assumes during sleep are as remarkable and 

 characteristic as is his pronounced playfulness. 

 When ijercliing, his liead and wings will some- 

 times hang straight down — the bird apparently 

 dead and about to fall to the earth. Or again 

 when a visitor perceives this great bird prone 

 ujion his back with feet in air, wings half open 

 and beak agape, a hurry call is naturally sent 

 to the keeper to remove the body of his defunct 

 charge ; but in a fraction of a second the Con- 

 dor will spring upon his feet, as much alive as 

 ever. 



The word Condor is the Spanish equivalent 

 of the native Peruvian Cuntur. It inhabits the 

 Andes of Ecuador, Peru, Chili, and Patagonia 

 north to the Rio Negro. The size of the Con- 

 dor has been greatly exaggerated by writers. 

 No less a personage than Alexander von Hum- 

 boldt was led to believe that these birds some- 

 times had a spread of wing of fifteen feet. As 

 a matter of fact, with the exception of the Cali- 

 fornia Condor, the South American bird has the 

 greatest expanse of wing of any American land 

 bird, but the average spread of a full grown 

 male is only nine to nine and one-half feet. 



