93 CONDOR, VULTURE. 



the Greenlanders will scarcely eat them. It is generally 

 a wary bird ; but when gorged with eating, is easily 

 caught. The skin is very tough, and used by the Green- 

 landers for making garments ; they also sometimes eat the 

 flesh. 



THE CONDOR. 



THIS is the largest bird of the vulture kind ; and for 

 magnitude, strength, and rapacity, is without a rival among 

 the winged tribes. It is formidable not only to animals, 

 but sometimes to man himself. According to some authors, 

 the expansion of its wing is eighteen feet; the beak is 

 strong, and sharp enough to perforate the body of a cow ; 

 and two of these creatures will devour an ox at a single 

 repast. 



Indeed, the Condor shows no signs of alarm at the ap- 

 proach of man : through the benignity of Providence there 

 are but few of the species, or the consequences might be 

 dreadful. If we may credit the testimony of the Indians 

 of South America, where only the Condor is found, it will 

 carry off a deer, or a young calf in his talons, as easily as 

 an eagle carries offa hare or a rabbit. It seldom frequents 

 the forest, as it requires a large space for the display of 

 its wings j but it is sometimes seen on the sea shore, and 

 the banks of rivers ; whither it descends at certain seasons 

 from the heights of the mountains, or the deserts, which 

 are, for the most part, peopled by the monstrous births of 

 nature. In those wild regions every thing inspires a 

 latent horror: broken precipices, prowling panthers, 

 forests only vocal with the lisping of serpents, and 

 mountains of the most forbidding aspect, rendered still more 

 terrific by being the haunt or retreat of the Condor. 



The colour of this bird is brown. One of its feathers is 

 nearly two feet and a half in length ; and, in the largest 

 parts, an inch and a half in circumference. 



THE KING OF THE VULTURES. 



THIS bird is larger than a raven, and is very common in 

 the warm parts of America. It lives on filth and putrid 



