CONDITION CONDOR. 



387 



tr.itted into the French academy, which, however, he 

 did not visit again after the day of his entrance. His 

 work, Le Commerce et le (jouvernment consideres rela- 

 tivement I'un a favtre (L776), which is an application 

 of his analytical method to several problems in the 

 administration of the state, met, however, with little 

 approbation. His logic, the last of his works, he 

 wrote by request, in 1780, as a manual for the Polish 

 schools. The tracing back of the thoughts to their 

 simplest beginnings, as the most certain means of 

 finding the truth, is urgently enjoined by him. Con- 

 dillac died at his estate of Flux, near Bougenci, Aug. 

 3, 1780. His Langue des Calculs first appeared in 

 1798. The collection of his works, the revision of 

 which he had begun, appeared in 1798, in 23 vols., 

 and again the same year, in 35 vols. A later edi- 

 tion, of 1803, consists of 33 vols., 12mo. See French 

 Philosophy. 



CONDITION. See Bond. 



CONDOR. The popular name of the great vul- 

 ture of the Andes, formed by a mispronunciation of 

 the Indian name kunter, which, according to Hum- 

 boldt, is derived from another word in the language 

 of the Incas, signifying to smell well. This species 

 (vultur gryp/iits, L., hodie cathartes gryphus') belongs 

 to the vulturine family of diurnal rapacious birds, and 

 the genus cathartes of Illiger, &c., which is distin- 

 guished by the following characters : the bill is 

 elongated and straight at base ; the upper mandible is 

 covered to the middle by the cere ; the nostrils are 

 medial, approximate, oval, pervious, and naked; the 

 toiiL- ue is canaliculate, with serrated edges ; the head 

 is elongated, depressed and rugous ; the tarsus rather 

 slender ; the lateral toes equal ; the middle toe is 

 much the longest, the inner free, and the hind one 

 shortest ; the first primary is rather short, the third 

 and fourth are longest. 



The natural history of the condor was in a fair way 

 to rival the ancient fables of griffins, basilisks and 

 dragons, or even of exceeding the roc of Sinbad the 

 Sailor, in extravagant exaggeration, until that ad- 

 mirable and judicious observer, Von Humboldt, 

 placed it upon the basis of truth. By divesting this 

 bird of all fictitious attributes, and bringing it into 

 its proper family, he certainly spoiled a great 

 number of romantic narratives of their principal 

 embellishment ; but he amply compensated there- 

 for, by giving this additional proof, that there are 

 no monsters in nature, and that even when she ap- 

 pears to depart most from the ordinary standard, as 

 to size, situation, or habits, her beings are parts of a 

 single plan, in which all the agents are modifications 

 of one great type. We therefore feel grateful to the 

 indefatigable naturalist, whose residence of seven- 

 teen months in the native mountains of the condor 

 enabled him daily to observe its peculiarities and 

 habits, and to furnish us with satisfying statements 

 of realities, in place of the wild and inconclusive fig- 

 ments, so long imposed upon mankind. His careful 

 measurements establish the fact, that the wonderfully 

 gigantic condor is not generally larger than the 

 lammerge.yer, or bearded vulture of the Alps, which 

 it closely resembles in various points of character. 

 We shall soon see whether the rational student has 

 lost by stripping the condor of qualities bestowed 

 upon it solely by credulous ignorance, and whether 

 the truth to be told of its history be not more in- 

 teresting tlian all the fictions. Upon a chain of 

 mountains, whose summits, lifted far above the 

 highest clouds, are robed in snows coeval with 

 creation, we find a race of birds, whose magnitude 

 and might, compared with others of the feathered 

 kind, is in something like the proportion of their 

 huge domiciles to earth's ordinary elevations. Above 

 ail animal life, and at the extreme limit of even 



Alpine vegetation, these birds prefer to dwell, in- 

 haling an air too highly rarified to be endured, unless 

 by creatures expressly adapted thereto. From such 

 immense elevations they soar, still more sublimely, 

 upwards into the dark blue heavens, until their great 

 bulk diminishes to a scarcely perceptible speck, or 

 is lost to the aching sight of the observer. In these 

 pure fields of ether, unvisited even by the thunder- 

 cloud regions which may be regarded as his own ex- 

 clusive domain the condor delights to sail, and with 

 piercing glance surveys the surface of the earth, to- 

 wards which he never stoops his wing, unless at the 

 call of hunger. Surely this power to waft and sus- 

 tain himself in the loftiest regions of the air ; his 

 ability to endure, uninjured, the exceeding cold at- 

 tendant on such remoteness from the earth ; and to 

 breathe, with ease, in an atmosphere of such extreme 

 rarity ; together with the keenness of sight, that, 

 from such vast heights, can minutely scan the ob- 

 iects below, are sufficiently admirable to entitle the 

 condor to our attention, though we no longer regard 

 it as a prodigy, or as standing altogether solitary in 

 the scale of creation. 



Notwithstanding that the condor is a lover of the 

 clearest and purest air, it must be confessed that lie 

 is a carrion bird, and is quickly lured to the plains 

 by the sight or scent of a carcass, especially of a 

 sheep or ox. To such a feast considerable numbers 

 repair, and commence their filthy banquet by first 

 plucking out the eyes, and then tearing away the 

 tongue of the animal, their favourite delicacies ; next 

 to these, the bowels are the morsels most eagerly 

 sought for, and devoured with that greedy gluttony 

 which distinguishes the whole vulture tribe. The 

 appetite of these birds seems to be limited only by 

 the quantity of food that can be gorged into their 

 stomachs; and when thus overloaded, they appear 

 sluggish, oppressed, and unable to raise themselves 

 into the air. The Indians profit by this condition to 

 revenge themselves on the condors for the many 

 robberies which they commit upon their flocks, and, 

 watching while they eat, until flight has become ex- 

 ceedingly difficult, attack and secure them by nooses, 

 or knock them down with poles, before they can 

 get out of the way. If the condor, thus loaded, 

 succeeds in rising a short distance from the ground, 

 he makes a violc nt effort, kicking his feet towards 

 his throat, and relieves himself by vomiting, when he 

 soon ascends out of reach. Many, however, are 

 surprised, and captured or killed before they are able 

 to ascend. But the condor does not exclusively feed 

 upon dead or putrefying flesh ; he attacks and de- 

 stroys deer, vicunas, and other middling-sized or 

 small quadrupeds ; and, when pinched by hunger, a 

 pair of these birds will attack a bullock, and, by re- 

 peated wounds with their beaks and claws, harass 

 Dim, until, from fatigue, he thrusts out his tongue, 

 which they immediately seize, and tear from his 

 head ; they also pluck out the eyes of the poor beast, 

 which, if not speedily rescued, must soon fell a prey 

 to their voracity. It is said to be very common to 

 see the cattle of the Indians, on the Andes, suffering 

 from the severe wounds inflicted by these rapacious 

 birds. It does not appear that they have ever at- 

 tacked the human race. W lien Humboldt, accom- 

 panied by his friend Bonpland, was collecting plants 

 near the limits of perpetual snow, they were daily in 

 company with several condors, which would suffer 

 themselves to be quite closely approached without 

 exhibiting signs of alarm, though they never showed 

 any disposition to act offensively. They were not 

 accused, by the Indians, of ever carrying off children, 

 though frequent opportunities were presented, had 

 theyljeen so disposed. Humboldt believes that no 

 authenticated case can be produced, in which the 

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