142 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. V. 



from their enemies which is almost peculiar to them- 

 selves. 



( 16 1 .) In the rapacious order (Raptoreii), we, of course, 

 find the greatest courage, and the power of inflicting the 

 greatest injury upon their enemies. The sharp retrac- 

 tile claws of these birds, formed upon the same model 

 as those of the beasts of prey, are the chief weapons of 

 the rapacious birds, and with which they seize and 

 secure their prey. The bill, also, is always hooked, 

 generally very acute, and in a considerable number 

 armed with angular projections as in the true falcons 

 (fig. 46.) analogous to teeth: 

 these assist in tearing the 

 flesh of their foes or of their 

 food ; while to these defences 

 is superadded a muscular 

 force far superior to all other 

 birds of their own size. 

 Humboldt affirms that two 

 condors are able to attack and 

 destroy a puma, or a heifer, 

 and to peck out their eyes. It 

 was long asserted that these 

 birds flew off with young 

 children in their talons ; but the author just named posi- 

 tively assures us that this is a vulgar error. The claws of 

 the condor, and of the vultures generally, are by no 

 means so formidable in their construction as those of the 

 other Raptores; but they have an additional defence in the 

 thickness of their skin, the compactness of their feathers, 

 and the coat of down beneath them. Their tenacity of 

 life is astonishing. M. De Humboldt was present at 

 certain experiments on the life of a condor at Rio 

 Bamba. They first attempted to strangle it with a 

 noose ; they hung it to a tree, and dragged the legs 

 with great force for many minutes : but scarcely was 

 the noose removed, than the condor began to walk about, 

 as if nothing had been the matter. Three pistol-balls 

 were then discharged at him, within less than four 



