602 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
it raises its neck, hitherto buried between its shoulders, and shaking 
its wide wings, launches into space. The impetus of its own weight 
at first carries it downwards, but soon recovering itself, it traverses 
the aérial space with majestic ease and grandeur. Almost im- 
perceptible movements of the wings are sufficient to carry it in 
every direction ; at one moment it is skimming over the surface of 
the ground, now it is up in the clouds, 3,000 feet above. The 
Condor’s power of vision is so great that 1t commands a view of 
the plain beneath from the greatest altitudes, and although it is no 
longer visible to denizens of earth, their slightest movements cannot 
escape its piercing sight. When it views prey, partly folding its wings, 
it descends with the rapidity of lightning. 
Although endowed with such powerful means of action, the Con- 
dor never attacks living animals unless they are helpless from age 
or enfeebled by disease. ‘The stories of some travellers concerning 
the boldness of this bird are not founded on fact. It is inaccurate 
to state that the Condor will attack a man, as a child of ten years old, 
armed with a stick, has been known to put it to flight. It has been 
asserted that this bird will carry off lambs, young llamas, and even 
children, but this statement will not hold good when subjected to 
examination ; for the Condo1, like all the vulture tribe, has short toes 
and non-retractile claws, it is therefore radically impossible for it to 
clutch and carry prey of any considerable weight. 
It is, however, a fact beyond all question that the Condor is in 
the habit of prowling round flocks of sheep and cows ; and, like the 
Caracara, will fall upon and devour newly-born animals. It accom- 
panies the caravans which cross the plains of South America, and 
when an unfortunate pack animal, worn out with fatigue and priva- 
tion, sinks down exhausted, totally unable to proceed on the journey, 
it becomes the prey of these winged banditti, which often commence 
their meal before life has left the exhausted body. M. de Castelnau, 
who has studied the Condor in the Andes, writes with regard to this 
subject :-— 
“Travellers, who have sunk down upon the ground when utterly 
worn-out with fatigue and suffering, have been known to be attacked, 
and finally torn to pieces, by these ferocious birds, which pluck strips 
of flesh off their victims, having first disabled them with blows of the 
wing. ‘The unfortunates may resist for a time, but ere long a few 
blood-stained fragments are all that remain to announce to the 
passer-by the horrible death suffered by those who preceded him on 
these dangerous paths.” 
The Condor possesses extraordinary tenacity of life. Humboldt 
