64 HISTORY OF 



do not even abstain from man himself : but fortunately there 

 are but few of the species ; for if they had been plenty, every 

 order of animals must have carried on an unsuccessful war 

 against them. The Indians assert, that they will carry off a deer, 

 or a young calf, in their talons, as eagles would a hare or a rab- 

 bit ; that their sight is piercing, and their air terrible ; that they 

 seldom frequent the forests, as they require a large space for the 

 display of their wings ; but that they are found on the sea-shore, 

 and tlie banks of rivers, whither they descend from the heights 

 of the mountains. By later accounts we learn, that they come 

 down to the sea-shore only at certam seasons, when their prey 

 happens to fail them upon land ; that they then feed upon dead 

 fish, and such other nutritious substances as the sea throws upor. 

 the shore. We are assured, however, that their countenance is 

 not so terrible as the old writers have represented it ; but that 

 they appear of a milder nature than either the eagle or the vul- 

 ture.* 



* It is astonishing:, observes Humboldt, that one of the largest of terres- 

 trial birds and animals inhabiting countries which Europeans have been ac- 

 customed to visit for more than three centuries, should have so long re- 

 mained so imperfectly known. The descriptions even of the most modern 

 naturalists and travellers concerning this bird, are replete with contradic 

 tion, error, and falsehood. By some, the size and ferocity of the condor 

 have been immeasurably exaggerated; others have confounded it with ap. 

 proximating species, or assumed the differences observed in the bird from 

 infancy to age, as the diagnostic characteristics of sex. Baron Cuvier, in 

 speaking of the form of the condor, after a careful investigation of all that 

 has been written on the subject before Humboldt, expresses himself thus : 

 " Some authors attribute to the condor a brown plumage, and a head cloth- 

 ed with down ; others, a fleshy crest on the forehead, and a black and 

 white plumage. It has not yet been described with any precision." Of 

 the two drawings given by Dr Shaw, the second alone bears the least re- 

 semblance to the great vulture of the Andes. " But the head," says baron 

 de Humboldt, " is without character. It more resembles that of a cock, 

 than the head of the Peruvian condor : Buffon has not even risked an en. 

 graving of this bird. The one added to the edition of his works, at Deux 

 Pouts, is below all criticism." 



The baron do H umboldt liaviiig resided for seventeen months in the native 

 moiuitains of the condor, haviug had occasion constantly to see it in its fre. 

 quent excursions beyond the limits of perpetual snow, has been enabled to 

 render the most essential service to zoology, by publishing a detailed de- 

 fcriptiou of this animal, and the drawings which he sketched of it on the 

 spot. 



The name of condor is derived from the Qquichua language, the general 

 Innguage of the ancient Incas. It should be written cun(ui; as other natik 



