308 fOR£lGU BIRDS. 



The birds heard his voice, ere the glorious sun 

 Had his race o*er the waters in radiance begun. 



The chief of this description is from Dr. Latham, who derived 

 his information from an actual specimen ; but the scarcity of 

 this bird renders its accurate description difficult, and it also 

 varies in different authors. 



It is said to build under the protection of the highest rocks ; 

 eggs two, white; the west must be, of course, large, but its size, 

 or of what materials composed, does not seem with accuracy 

 known. Inhabits South America, Asia, some parts of Africa, 

 and probably other regions of the globe j it appears to be a bird 

 of enormous power, but is, in every country, extremely rare. 



This rapacious animal has attracted the notice of travellers, 

 who have, perhaps, too often given their descriptions of it an 

 air of exaggeration. Dr. Grainger, author of the Sugar CanCf 

 and other PoemSf has alluded to it under the name of Ztunbadorej 

 80 called, he informs us, in consequence of the hideous humming 

 noise which it makes : 



"The swift wing'd Zumbadore 

 The mountain desert startled with his hum.*' 



Sugar CanCj Book I. 



In a note to the poem it is said that this bird, one of the 

 largest and swiftest known, " is only seen at night, or rather 

 heard, on the desert tops of the Andes.'* This, however, is 

 not, by later accounts, correct : the condor frequents the sea- 

 coasts during the rainy season in the evening, remains there all 

 night, and returns in the morning to the mountains. From the 

 extreme rarity of this bird its natural history is not yet well 

 understood; further information concerning it is every way 

 desirable. 



It has been conjectured that the Roc mentioned in the fables 

 of the Arabian writers is this bird. 



The PapUf King-of-the- Vultures, or King-Vulture, has 

 the nostrils caruncalate ; crown and neck naked ; body above 



