THE CONDOR. 73 
expanded, with an altered inclination, the momentum gained by the rapid 
descent seemed to urge the bird upwards with the even and steady movement 
of a paper kite. In case of any bird soaring, its motion must be sufficiently 
rapid, so that the action of the inclined surface of its body on the atmos- 
phere may counterbalance its gravity. The force to keep up the momentum 
of a body moving in a horizontal plane in that fluid (in which there is so 
little friction) cannot be great, and this force is all that is wanted. The 
movement of the neek and body of the Condor we must suppose sufficient 
for this. Hlowever this may be, it is truly wonderful and beautiful to see 
so great a bird, hour after hour, without any apparent exertion, wheeling 
and gliding over mountain and river.” 
The Condor feeds, like other vultures, on carrion, dead llamas, mules, 
sheep, &c. When gorged with food, they sit sullen and drowsy on the 
rocks, and, as Humboldt says, will suffer themselves to be driven before 
the hunters, rather than take wing; but he adds, that he has seen them when 
on the look-out for prey, especially on severe days, soaring at a prodigious 
height, as if for the purpose of commanding the most extensive view. The 
same writer states that he never heard of any well-authenticated instance 
of these birds carrying away children (according to vague report) ; that he 
often approached within a few feet of them, as they sat on the rocks, but 
they never manifested any disposition to assault him; and the Indians at 
Quito assure him that men have nothing to fear from them. This searcely 
applies to other animals. “ Besides feeding on carrion,” says Mr. Darwin, 
“the Condors will frequently attack young goats and lambs. Hence the 
shepherd-dogs are trained, the moment the enemy passes over, to run out, 
and, looking upwards, to bark violently.” Two of them will sometimes 
attack the vicugna, the Tama, the heifer, and even the puma, persecuting 
the quadruped till it falls beneath the wounds inflicted by the beaks of its 
assailants. The Condor is, indeed, amazingly strong, and extremely tenacious 
of life. Sir Francis Head relates the account of a struggle between one of 
his Cornish miners and a Condor gorged with food, and, therefore, not in 
the best state for the fray: the man began by grasping the bird round the 
neck, which he tried to break; but the bird, roused by the unceremonious 
attack, struggled so violently as to defeat the plan; nor, after an hour’s 
struggling, though the miner brought away several of the wing feathers in 
token of victory, does it appear that the bird was despatched. 
According to Mr. Darwin (and Humboldt states the same), “the Condor 
makes no sort of nest, but in the months of Noyember and December 
lays two large white eggs on a shelf of bare rock. On the Patagonian 
coast, I could not see any sort of nest among the cliffs where the young were 
standing. It is said that young Condors cannot fly for an entire year. At 
