C(NIXH;CI-;T 



CON IK "(TOKS 



405 



the largest of tin- vulture-,. Tin- tmlv rival which 



could dispute tlii> claim i> (lie fiiiiinii.s Lamniei -.'i-T 



( (ii/fiii-tu* Imi-lmtns) of the Alps. 'I'lie male condor 



measure about l\\ I'eet ill length, the lem:ile \K 



plight Iv smaller. The expanse ofeach wing (said 

 in ! I.. feet from tip to tip) is morn than twice 

 the length. The general OOlOW is Itlack with a 

 steel-blue .sheen, and some of the feathers verge 

 into gray ; there is a downy white rut!' round the 

 dull-red naked neck. The young birds are COM-I id 

 \\itli whitish down. The beak is long, hooked at 

 the apex, hlack at the root, yellow at the point and 

 on the sides. The head is naked, and in the male 

 bird hears a large fleshy comb. The eyes look side- 

 ways ; the ' perforated ' nose is characteristic of the 

 family. The voice is limited to a weak sort of 

 siim tin;;. The feet are not well suited for grasping, 

 the hind-toe being very small and hardly reaching 

 the ground. The stories about condors lifting their 

 prey in their feet from the ground are mythical. 

 These birds have their central home in the Andes, 

 but extend to some other mountainous parts of 

 South America. They breed on the heights, laying 

 their two eggs on bare ledges in the months of 

 November and December ; the young are unable 

 to fly for a whole year. They descend to the 

 plains to feed on carrion, tearing carcasses with 

 their strong bills ; they may also attack lambs and 

 calves, or several together may venture on an adult 

 animal. Their boldness and voracity seem to have 

 been exaggerated. Their voracity is, however, 

 great : Tschudi mentions one in confinement at 

 Valparaiso, which ate 18 Ib. of meat in a single 

 day, and seemed on the morrow to have as good 

 an appetite as usual. The condors have great 

 powers of flight, and can soar to immense heights, 

 till, in fact, they are lost in or far above the clouds. 

 They are readily kept in confinement, and may be 

 seen in many zoological gardens. 



In the same genus is the rarer King of the Vul- 

 tures (S. papa), inhabiting the wooded plains of 

 South and Central America. It is a smaller bird, 

 reddish-yellow al>ove, white beneath, with bluish- 

 gray ruff, black quills and tail. Its head and neck 

 are covered with variously coloured roughnesses. 

 It owes its name to the way in which it bullies 

 other vultures. Closely allied is the Turkey Vul- 

 ture (Cathartcs aura) of North America. This 

 bird, useful as a carrion destroyer, is about 2i feet 

 in length, black in colour with a purplish sheen, 

 well marked by its carmine and bluish-red head, 

 fleshy neck, and white feet. C. atratus is another 

 species from South America. 



Condorcet, JEAN ANTOINE NICOLAS DE CARI- 

 TAT, MARQUIS DE, an eminent French author, was 

 l>orn, the son of a cavalry officer, in the little town 

 of Ribemont, near St Quentin, in the department 

 of Aisne, on September 17, 1743. In childhood 

 he breathed the closest atmosphere of clerical 

 and aristocratic exclusiveness, with the result of 

 making him in after-years the enemy of all privi- 

 lege and a thoroughgoing sceptic. Condorcet, 

 after distinguishing himself in the Jesuit school at 

 Kheiins, began his mathematical studies at the 

 age of thirteen, at the College of Navarre in Paris. 

 His success was rapid and brilliant ; and the high 

 approval of Clairaut and D'Alembert determined 

 his future. His Esani stir le. Calcul Integral 

 ( 1 765 ) obtained for him a seat in the Academy, 

 and he became perpetual secretary in 1777. He 

 took an active part in the Encyclojtedie. On 

 the outbreak of the Revolution he made eloquent 

 speeches and wrote famous pamphlets on the 

 popular side, was sent by Paris to the Legislative 

 Assembly in 1791, and in 1792 became president of 

 the Assembly. He voted that the king should 

 receive the most severe punishment except death, 

 and as deputy for Aisne in the National Con- 



vention, he voted usually with the (iironduU. 

 \'i used and condemned by the extreme partv, he 

 found refuge in the house of a generous lady. 

 Madame Vernet, for eight months ; but driven to 

 change liis place of concealment, he was recognised 

 and arrested. Imprisoned in the gaol of Hoiirg la- 

 Reine on the 7th April 1794, he was found dead 

 the next morning, whether by disease or poison 

 \vas never known. 



His profession of faith, in a letter to Turgot, 

 which was written when he left college at seven- 

 teen years of age, lays stress on moral sympathy 

 as the source of all virtue. His constancy in moral 

 principle was fitly associated with perfect consist- 

 ency in politics. He raised a great commotion by 

 his attempt to apply the calculus of probabilities 

 in the domain of jurisprudence, and of the moral 

 and political sciences. In his Proqres de V Esprit 

 Humain, written in hiding, he insisted on the 

 justice and necessity of establishing a perfect 

 equality of civil and political rights between the 

 individuals of both sexes, and proclaimed the 

 indefinite perfectibility of the human race. Com- 



flete editions of his works have been issued in 

 804 (21 vols.) and 1849 (12 vols., containing a 

 biography by Arago). See Morley's Critical Mis- 

 cellanies, Comte's Philosophie Positive, and Flint's 

 History of the Philosophy of History. 



Condottie'ri ( Lat. conducti, ' hired ' ), the 

 name given in the 14th and 15th centuries to the 

 leaders of certain bands of ' free lances ' or mili- 

 tary adventurers who, for booty, offered their ser- 

 vices to any party in any contest, and often prac- 

 tised warfare on their own account purely for the 

 sake of plunder. These mercenaries were called 

 into action by the endless feuds of the Italian states 

 during the middle ages. Among the most cele- 

 brated of their leaders were Sir John Hawkwood at 

 Florence ( 1390, originally an Essex tailor ) ; Francis 

 of Carmagnola (about 1412); and Francis Sforza, 

 who in 1450 became Duke of Milan. The Com- 

 pagnies Grandes in France, during the 14th century, 

 resembled the bands led by the Italian condottieri. 

 They originated in the long bloody wars between 

 France and England, did enormous mischief, and 

 became powerful enough to rout the king's forces 

 in 1361 ; but ultimately Du Guesclin persuaded 

 them to seek their fortune in the Spanish service. 

 See O. Browning, The Age of the Condottieri (1895). 



Conductivity. See HEAT, ELECTRICITY. 



Conductor* the director of the modern or- 

 chestra. Though from the earliest days of the 

 orchestra abroad he has always performed his duty 

 by beating^ time with the baton, the practice was 

 unknown in this country till introduced by Spohr 

 in 1820, at a concert of the Philharmonic Society of 

 London. Previously the orchestra was kept together 

 by the leader of the violins, the conductor simply 

 sitting at the harpsichord or piano with the score 

 before him, occasionally putting in a few chords, or 

 accompanying ; but the result was clearly unsatis- 

 factory, and the conducting stick had only to be 

 introduced to gain general acceptance at once. The 

 art of conducting as now practised requires so many 

 qualifications that it may be considered rather as a 

 special gift than an acquirement to be learnt. But 

 few eminent composers have also distinguished 

 themselves as conductors. The greatest recent 

 conductors are Costa, Von Billow, and Richter. 



Conductors and Non-conductors of 

 Electricity. When an electrified body is placed 

 upon a metallic stand, so that it is in metallic con- 

 nection with the earth, all traces of electrification 

 disappear : but if placed upon supports of glass or 

 ebonite, its charge is still retained, the body then 

 being said to be i HUH hit erf. In the former case, the 

 electric charge having passed to the ground through 



