CONDORS. 17 



is the most lofty ; and even the situation that it chooses for its breeding-place 

 varies from 10,000 to 15,000 feet above the level of the sea. These birds gene- 

 rally live in pairs ; but among the inland basaltic cliffs of Santa Cruz they 

 sometimes collect together in great numbers ; and it is a grand spectacle to 

 see twenty or thirty of them start heavily from their resting-places and wheel 

 away in majestic circles. So aerial and buoyant is their flight that, except when 

 rising from the ground, they are scarcely ever observed to move their wings. 



The condor feeds upon dead and putrefying carcases, but two or more will 

 sometimes unite to overpower the llama and other large animals. They will 

 even attack a heifer : they pursue it for a long time, wounding it with their 

 beak and talons until the poor animal sinks to the ground breathless and 

 overwhelmed with fatigue. 



In Chili, as on the elevated plateaux of Quito, the condors congregate in 

 flocks for the purpose of attacking lambs and calves, or seizing on young 

 guanacos. The havoc annually committed by these birds among the herds 

 of sheep, goats, and cattle, as well as among the wild vicunias and alpacas of 

 the chain of the Andes, is very considerable. The Chihans assert that the 

 condor when in captivity can endure hunger for forty days : when in a state 

 of freedom, however, its voracity is excessive, insomuch that both in Chili and 

 Peru it is often caught in confined localities, for the bird, after being rendered 

 heavy from sheer repletion, is obliged to run for some distance before it 

 can take flight. A dead ox which is already in a state of incipient decompo- 

 sition is strongly enclosed with palisades, and within this narrow space the 

 condors throng together, until they have gorged themselves with a full meal, 

 being then unable to fly on account of the excess of food which they have 

 devoured, and impeded in their run by the palisades, they are either killed 

 with clubs or caught alive with the lasso. 



Humboldt asserts that he has observed the condor saihng aloftiat an abso- 

 lute akitude of 23,273 feet above the level of the sea, a height at which the 

 barometer scarcely stands at 127 inches, and that the same bird, after wheel- 

 ing for hours together through these highly rarefied regions, is able suddenly 

 to descend to the sea-shore, and thus in the course of a few minutes traverse, 

 as it were, all climates. 



The female condor makes no nest, but lays her eggs upon the bare rock, 

 simply selecting a spot where there are cavities large enough to prevent them 

 from rolling down when she descends upon or rises from them. The situa- 

 tions chosen for incubation are always nearly inaccessible. The eggs are 

 white, and are said to be usually two in number. 



Siib-Fainily III. 



THE VULTURES PROPER. VULTURIN^. 



General Characteristics.— Bill long, strong, more elevated than broad, the sides 

 more or less compressed, the base covered with a cere for nearly half the length of 

 the bill, and the tip suddenly hooked over the lower mandible ; nostrils placed in 

 the cere, with their openings oblique and exposed ; wings lengthened ; tarsi covered 

 with small scales ; the middle toe longer than the tarsi, while the lateral toes are 

 much shorter. 



This sub-family comprehends a number of large birds peculiar 

 to the warmer parts of the Old World. They speedily collect in 



