266 DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. 



one great group equal in rank to a second including only the present family. Some 

 ornithologists go even further than this, and refuse to admit the American vultures 

 within the limits of the Accipitrine order ; but the correctness of this view we are 

 not yet prepared to admit. Agreeing in general appearance and their bare heads 

 and necks with the vultures of the Old World, the American vultures can be 

 distinguished at a glance by the absence of any partition between the two nostrils, 

 so that (as seen in our figure of the turkey- vulture on p. 275) there is a hole right 

 through the upper part of the beak. They also differ from the Falconidce and 

 Vulturidce by the absence of after-shafts to the feathers ; in which respect, as also in 

 the presence of basipterygoid processes on the rostrum of the skull and in the naked 

 oil-gland, they resemble the owls. A remarkable peculiarity of the group is the 

 absence of a syrinx, or voice-organ, in the lower part of the windpipe, in consequence 

 of which the only sound that these birds can utter is a kind of hiss. In their length 

 of limb these vultures agree with the Old World group, but the first toe is more 

 elevated. There are, altogether, about nine species of these birds, of which the 

 majority are at least partly South American, although the range of the family 

 extends about as far north as the northern boundary of the United States. 



Largest of all the birds of prey, the condor of the Andes 

 (Sarcorhampus gryphus) is the type of a genus characterised by 

 the head of the male being furnished with a large erect fleshy wattle, which forms 

 a median crest immediately behind the beak ; and also by the rounded wings, 

 in which the primary and secondary quills are of nearly equal length, exceeding 

 twice the length of the tail. The first toe is very short; while the second and fourth 

 toes are of nearly equal length. The female lacks the head- wattle of the male ; 

 but in both sexes the beak is characterised by its comparative shortness and 

 depth. In the male condor the general colour of the plumage may be described as 

 glossy black with grey on the wings ; most of the wing-coverts, as well as all the 

 secondaries and the inner primaries, having their external margins ashy white. 

 The large downy ruff round the neck is pure white ; and the bare parts of the 

 head, neck, and chest have a wrinkled and mostly dark coloured skin, developed 

 into a wattle on the throat and another on the chest. Horny brown at the base, 

 the bill becomes ivory-white at the tip, while the feet are blackish, and the iris 

 of the eye pale brown. In the smooth-headed and smaller female the iris is red, 

 and there are no wattles on the neck and chest. According to Darwin, the length 

 of the male is about 48 inches, and the body is of immense size and weight, while 

 the span of the wings probably reaches 9 feet. A smaller condor from Ecuador 

 and Quito has a uniformly brown plumage, and the whole beak blackish. 



The condor is especially characteristic of the Peruvian and Chilian Andes, 

 where it is usually found in the zone lying between nine thousand and sixteen 

 thousand feet ; its range extends, however, from Quito to the extreme southern 

 point of the Continent, and in Patagonia it frequents the steep cliffs on the coast. 

 It has been often stated that these birds may be seen soaring round the highest 

 peaks of the Andes, from whence they suddenly descend to the level of the plains, 

 but the observations of Mr. Whymper have shown that this is incorrect. In 

 the neighbourhood of Chimborazo that traveller never observed these birds 

 anywhere near the mountain summits, whence he concludes that the upper limit 



