138 FALCONIFORMES CHAP. 
accompanied by little movement of the pinions, as they circle over 
the plains or mountain-sides in search of prey. In this quest 
experiments have shewn that they are little guided by smell; 
rather does some individual, aided by its marvellously keen sight, 
spy the carrion from afar, its motives being instantly divined by its 
immediate neighbour; a third bird is next attracted ; and so the 
tidings spread, until a greedy crowd meets to dismember the car- 
cass, to fight over the morsels, and then to sit stupid and gorged, 
with drooping wings, on or near the ground. Except when feed- 
ing, the Cathartidae are non-gregarious, though “Turkey-Buzzards” 
and “ Black Vultures” roost in company; the latter are said to 
take to the wing with ease, eschewing the preliminary hops of 
their allies; while all walk well. The voice is a hoarse sound or 
hiss, owing to the absence of syringeal muscles. The nest of sticks 
is placed in trees, cavities of rocks, hollow stumps, or on the ground, 
and may be bulky or of the shghtest description; the one or two eges 
are white, buff, or greenish, with or without reddish-brown and grey 
blotches. The parents regurgitate food—at least occasionally— 
for the nestlings, and eject foul-smelling matter when disturbed. 
Sarcorhamphus gryphus, the Condor, only equalled in size among 
birds that fly by a few Old-World Vultures, and appearing still 
larger in clear mountain air, ranges down western South America 
and up to the Rio Negro on the east of Patagonia. The head and 
neck are bare, with dull red skin, wrinkled in folds on the latter ; 
while an oblique ruff of white down surmounts the black plumage, 
which shews white edges to the wing-coverts and secondaries. The 
male has a fleshy crest extending from the mid-cere to the crown, 
a large wattle on the throat, and a small caruncle below; the irides 
being in that sex brown, in the female garnet-red. The bill is 
white with brown base. Smaller and browner examples occur in 
Ecuador, but larger appendages mark those of Chili and Patagonia. 
In the southern portion of their range Condors are found down to 
the sea-level, but Mr. E. Whymper * states that in Ecuador they 
frequent the Andes up to sixteen thousand feet, and rarely descend 
to the plains. Stupid and voracious, they can be lassced while 
feeding, and, though they will attack old horses, calves, lambs, 
goats, deer, and dogs, especially when dazzled by the sun, they 
seldom risk an assault on mankind. The nest, of a few sticks, is 
placed on steep cliffs, and contains two white eggs. A young bird 
! Travels amongst the Great Andes of the Equator, 1891-92, pp. 200-205. 
