THE CONDOR. 



477 



CHAPTER LXXX1II. 



THE CONDOR OF AMERICA. 



WE might now come to speak of the vul- 

 ture kind, as they hold the next rank to the 

 eagle ; but we are interrupted in our method, 

 by the consideration of an enormous bird, 

 whose place is not yet ascertained ; as natu- 

 ralists are in doubt whether to refer it to the 

 eagle tribe, or to that of the vulture. Its 

 great strength, force, and vivacity, might plead 

 for its place among the former ; the baldness 

 of its head and neck might be thought to de- 

 grade it among the latter. In this uncertain- 

 ty, it will be enough to describe the bird, by 

 the lights we have, and leave future historians 

 to settle its rank in the feathered creation. 

 Indeed, if size and strength, combined with 

 rapidity of flight and rapacity, deserve pre- 

 eminence, no bird can be put in competition 

 with it. 



The Condor possesses, in a higher degree 

 than the eagle, all the qualities that render 

 it formidable, not only to the feathered kind, 

 but to beasts, and even to man himself. Acos- 

 ta, Garcilasso, and Desmarchais, assert, that 

 it is eighteen feet across, the wings extended. 

 The beak is so strong as to pierce the body 

 of a cow ; and two of them are able to devour 

 it. They do not even abstain from man him- 

 self: but fortunately there are but few of the 

 species; for if they had been plenty, every 

 order of animals must have carried on an un- 

 successful war against them. The Indians as- 

 sert, that they will carry off a deer, or a young 

 calf, in their talons, as eagles would a hare 

 or a rabbit; that their sight is piercing, and 

 their air terrible ; that they seldom frequent 

 the forests, as they require a large space for 

 the display of their wings; but that they are 

 found on the sea-shore, and the banks of ri- 

 vers, whither they descend from their heights 

 of the mountains. By later accounts we 

 learn, that they come down to the sea-shore 

 only at certain seasons, when their prey hap- 

 pens to fail them upon land ; that they then 

 feed upon dead fish, and such other nutritious 



substances as the sea throws upon the shore. 

 We are assured, however, that their counte- 

 nance is not so terrible as the old writers have 

 represented it; but that they appear of a 

 milder nature than either the eagle or the 

 vulture. 



Condamine has frequently seen them in se- 

 veral parts of the mountains of Quito, and ob- 

 served them hovering over a flock of sheep ; 

 and he thinks they would, at a certain time, 

 have attempted to carry one off, had they not 

 been scared away by the shepherds. Labat 

 acquaints us, that those who have seen this 

 animal, declare that the body is as large as 

 that of a sheep ; and that the flesh is tough, 

 and as disagreeable as carrion. The Spa- 

 niards themselves seem to dread its depre- 

 dations ; and there have been many instan- 

 ces of its carrying off their children. 



Mr. Strong, the master of a ship, as he was 

 sailing along the coasts of Chili, in the thirty- 

 third degree of south latitude, observed a bird 

 sitting upon a high cliff near the shore, which 

 some of the ship's company shot with a lead- 

 en bullet, and killed. They were greatly sur- 

 prised when they beheld its magnitude ; for 

 when the wings were extended, they mea- 

 sured thirteen feet from one tip to the other. 

 One of the quills was two feet four inches 

 long ; and the barrel, or hollow part, was six 

 inches and three quarters, and an inch and 

 a half in circumference. 



We have a still more circumstantial account 

 of this amazing bird, by P. Feuille, the only 

 traveller who has accurately described it : 

 "In the valley of Ilo in Peru, I discovered a 

 condor perched on a high rock before me : 

 I approached within gun-shot, and fired ; but, 

 as my piece was only charged with swan-shot, 

 the lead was not able sufficiently to pierce 

 the bird's feathers. I perceived, however, 

 by its manner of flying, that it was wounded ; 

 and it was with a good deal of difficulty that 

 it flew to another rock, about five hundred 



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