VULTURES. 



13 



lous Roc, of the Arabian nights, " who, as authors 

 report, is able to trusse an elephant." It is not 

 surprising that this bird, seen in the wildest and 

 most magnificent scenes, far above ordinary ob- 

 jects of comparison, should have drawn upon the 

 imaginations of those who observed it. Nestling 

 in the most solitary places, often upon the ridges 



of rocks which border the lower limits of perpe- 

 tual snow, and crowned with its extraordinary 

 comb, the Condor, for a long time, appeared to 

 the eyes of the scientific Humboldt, as a winged 

 giant, and he declares that it was not until he had 

 actually measured a dead specimen, that the op- 

 tical illusion was corrected. Still it is an immense 



