116 CONCUR. 



length. Their snout is broad, and somewhat turned up- 

 ward, and the teeth are broad and serrated. On the back 

 there is a long fin. In colour they somewhat resemble 

 the Porpesse. 



CLASS II. BIRDS. 



ORDER I. ACCIPITRES, or RAPACIOUS BIRDS. 



1. VULTURE TRIBE. 



Bold, greedy, and rapacious to an excessive degree, 

 the Vultures seize upon, and devour their prey, unawed 

 by the presence of mankind. Their sense of smelling is 

 so powerful, that they are able to discover the putrifying 

 bodies of animals at an immense distance. 



Condur. This tremendous and dreadful inhabitant of 

 the mountains of South America is of so enormous a 

 size, that his wings, from tip to tip, sometimes measure 

 from sixteen to eighteen feet. The largest quill-feathers 

 are more than thirty inches long, and, in the quill part, 

 an inch and a half in circumference. A size so extraordi- 

 nary has given rise to many incredible stories respecting 

 the Condur. Marco Paolo states, respecting it, that, 

 " singly and unassisted, it will seize upon an elephant, 

 elevate the ponderous animal into the air, and drop and 

 kill it by the fall." And it is supposed to have been to 

 this bird, that the writer of the Arabian tales was indebted 

 for his idea of the bird there called the roc. There can 

 be little doubt of the possibility of this bird's carrying off 



