The Buzzard. 197 



Condor's feet and talons are not fitted for carrying any 

 great weight. Both the talons and the bill are indeed 

 of extraordinary strength, but they are intended for 

 tearing objects to pieces ; and consequently we find that 

 the Condor feeds chiefly on dead or dying cattle, or 

 horses, which he tears to pieces and devours where they 

 lie. When the Condor is gorged the hunters attack 

 him, but his strength and fierceness are so great, that 

 one of Sir Francis Head's companions, who attempted 

 to seize a gorged Condor, said he never had " such a 

 battle in his life ;" though he had been a Cornish miner, 

 and was reckoned an excellent wrestler in his own 

 country. 



THE BUZZARD. (Falco Buteo, or Buteo vulgaris.) 



11 The noble Buzzard ever pleased me best ; 

 Of small renown, 't is true ; for, not to lie, 

 We call him but a Hawk by courtesy." 



HIND AND PANTHEB. 



THIS is a rapacious bird, of the hawk kind, and the 

 most common of all in England. It is of a sluggish, 

 indolent nature, often remaining perched on the same 

 bough for the greater part of the day : as if, indifferent 

 either to the allurements of food or of pleasure, it were 

 doomed, like some of the human species, to pass its 

 allotted span of life in passive contemplation. It feeds 



