WEIGHT OF CONDOR 



into ; but they exist, and are of importance. Anatomy 

 forbids us to place the American vultures quite close 

 to the accipitrine scavengers of the Old World. 



The condor with its black plumage, except on the 

 wings where it is grey, and the tips of the big wing 

 feathers which are white, the white ruff like a lady's 

 feather boa round its neck, its naked throat and the 

 wattle which rises on the head of the cock bird, is one 

 of the largest of flying fowls : it has an expanse of wing 

 which is hardly surpassed in the " aery caravan." A 

 specimen in the Zoo had a stretch of wing of 7 feet 

 6 inches, and the bird is said to reach so great a span 

 as 9 feet. But even then it is equalled by the Marabou 

 stork, which expands its wings to precisely the same 

 length, at any rate so far as concerned a large individual 

 at the Zoo. The condor, which measured seven feet and 

 a half, had a body weight of 131 lb. 9 oz. But a rela- 

 tionship between weight and expanse of wing is not 

 by any means always accurate in the bird tribe. A 

 lammergeier, for example, of 10 lb. in weight had a 

 wing expanse of 8 feet 8 inches. Nevertheless, there 

 is no doubt about the fact that the condor is a powerful 

 flyer, and its soaring capacity is a matter of universal 

 knowledge. It is precisely " every schoolboy " who 

 does know this fact, for the condor figures largely in 

 tales of adventure. That it will attack persons, or at 

 least threaten to do so, seems to be a fact. When thus 

 attacking it has the cunning to take advantage of sun- 

 light, and only to attack in brilliant weather, when it can 

 swoop down with its back to the sun, whose rays dazzle 

 the swooped-upon one. It delights in the fastnesses 

 of the Andes of Peru, and prefers to live at an altitude 

 of from 9 to 16,000 feet. The " scenting " of prey by 

 this and other vultures is a matter of common notoriety ; 

 but the causes of such keenness are not thoroughly 

 agreed upon. It seems to be useless to attribute the 



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