40 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



CHAP. IV. 



OF THE VULTURE AND ITS AFFINITIES. 



THE first rank in the description of birds 

 has been given to the eagle ; not because it 

 is stronger or larger than the vulture, but 

 because it is more generous and bold. The 

 eagle, unless pressed by famine, will not stoop 

 to carrion ; and never devours but what he 

 has earned by his own pursuit. The vulture, 

 on the contrary, is indelicately voracious ; and 

 seldom attacks living animals when it can be 

 supplied with the dead. The eagle meets 

 and singly opposes his enemy; the vulture, if 

 it expects resistance, calls in the aid of its 

 kind, and basely overpowers its prey by a 

 cowardly combination. Putrefaction and 

 stench, instead of deterring, only serves to 

 allure them. The vulture seems among birds 

 what the jackal and hyaena are among quad- 

 rupeds, who prey upon carcasses, and root up 

 the dead. 



Vultures may be easily distinguished from 



prevailed regarding the condor up to a late period, and 

 how much fable was interwoven with its history. Baron 

 vou Humboldt, the celebrated South American traveller, 

 was the first to set before the world its true character. 

 He passed seventeen months in the Andes, the native 

 mountains of the condor; he saw the bird daily; he shot 

 many specimens ; and he is satisfied that in general 

 their average size does not exceed that of the largest 

 European vultures. The authentic history of the condor 

 is, however, still full of interest. The eagle builds " his 

 aery on the mountain top ; " but the elevation at which 

 the eagle lives is far inferior to the snowy peaks of the 

 Andes, where the condor has his abiding place. At 

 the extreme limit of vegetation, where all other ani- 

 mals perish, the condor prefers to dwell, inhaling au 

 atmosphere so highly rarefied that almost every other 

 creature would perish in it. From these immense ele- 

 vations this wonderful bird soars still higher up, far 

 above the clouds ; and thence, with an almost unlimited 

 range of sight, he surveys the earth. Scenting some 

 carcase upon which he may banquet, he descends into 

 the plains ; and there he gorges himself with a voracity 

 almost without example. Captain Head, in his ' Rough 

 Notes,' has given an example of this habit of the condor: 

 " In riding along the plain I passed a dead horse, 

 about which were forty or fifty condors : many of them 

 were gorged and unable to fly ; several were standing 

 on the ground devouring the carcase the rest hovering 

 above it. I rode within twenty yards of them : one of 

 the largest of the birds was standing with one foot on 

 the ground and the other on the horse's body." He 

 adds that one of his party had also ridden up to the dead 

 horse ; and as one of these enormous birds flew about 

 fifty yards oft', and was unable to go any farther, he rode 

 up to him, and then, jumping off his horse, seized him 

 by the neck. The man, who was a Cornish miner, said 

 he had never had such a battle in his life, although he 

 was at last the conqueror. 



The condor does not exclusively feed upon dead or 

 putrefying flesh ; he attacks and destroys deer, vicunas, 

 and other middling-sized or small quadrupeds. It is 

 said, also, to be very common to see the cattle of the 



all those of the eagle kind, by the nakedness 

 of their heads and necks, which are without 

 feathers, and only covered with a very slight 

 down, or a few scattered hairs. Their eyes 

 are more prominent; those of the eagle being 

 buried more in the socket. Their claws are 

 shorter, and less hooked. The inside of the 

 wing is covered with a thick down, which is 

 different in them from all other birds of prey. 

 Their attitude is not so upright as that of the 

 eagle ; and their flight is more difficult and 

 heavy. 



In .this tribe we may range the golden, the 

 ash-coloured, and the brown vulture, which 

 are inhabitants of Europe ; the spotted and 

 the black vulture of Egypt ; the bearded vul- 

 ture ; the Brazilian vulture, and the king of 

 the vultures, of South America. They all 



Indians, on the Andes, suffering from the severe wounds 

 inflicted by these rapacious birds. It does not appear 

 that they have ever attacked the human race. When 

 Humboldt, accompanied by his friend Bonpland, was 

 collecting plants near the limits of perpetual snow, 

 they were daily in company with several condors which 

 would suffer themselves to be quite closely approached 

 without exhibiting signs of alarm, though they never 

 showed any disposition to act offensively. They were 

 not accused by the Indians of ever carrying oft' children, 

 though frequent opportunities were presented, had they 

 been so disposed. Humboldt believes that no authenti- 

 cated case can be produced, in which the lammergeyer 

 (or bearded vulture) of the Alps ever carried oft' a child, 

 though so currently accused of such theft ; but that the 

 possibility of the evil has led to the belief of its actual 

 existence. 



The condor is not known to build a nest, but is said 

 to deposit its eggs on the naked rocks. When hatched, 

 the female is said to remain with the young for a whole 

 year in order to provide them with food, and to teach 

 them to supply themselves. In relation to all these 

 points, satisfactory information still remains to be pro- 

 cured . 



Humboldt saw the condor only in new Grenada, 

 Quito, and Peru; but was informed that it follows the 

 chain of the Andes, from the equator to the seventh 

 degree of north latitude, into the province of Antioquia. 

 There is now no doubt, says the Encyclopaedia Ameri- 

 cana, of its appearing even in Mexico, and the south- 

 western territory of the United States. 



The habits of the condor partake of the bold ferocity 

 of the eagle, and of the disgusting filthiness of the vul- 

 ture. Although, like the latter, it appears to prefer the 

 dead carcass, it frequently makes war upon a living 

 prey ; but the gripe of its talons is not sufficiently firm 

 to enable it to carry oft' its victim through the air. Two 

 of these birds, acting in concert, will frequently attack a 

 puma, a llama, a calf, or even a full grown cow. They 

 will pursue the poor animal with unwearied pertinacity, 

 lacerating it incessantly with their beaks and talons, 

 until it falls exhausted with fatigue and loss of blood. 

 Then, having first seized upon its tongue, they proceed 

 to tear out its eyes, and commence their feast with these 

 favourite morsels. The intestines form the second 

 course of their banquet, which is usually continued until 

 the birds have gorged themselves so fully as to render 

 them incapable of using their wings in flight. The 

 Indians, who are well acquainted with this effect ol 

 their voracity, are in the habit of turning it to account 

 for their amusement in the chase. For this purpose 



