Z ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



for those additional traits which they considered neces- 

 sary to render the imaginary hkeness perfect. Thus 

 the Condor of the Andes was compared with the fabled 

 Roc of Eastern mythology, and this monstrous fabri- 

 cation of ignorant credulity was declared to be fully 

 equalled, if not surpassed, by the stupendous native of 

 the Western Hemisphere. 



There were, nevertheless, even among these travel- 

 lers, some few, such as Feuillee and Molina, better 

 versed in the study of nature, and trusting to their 

 eyes rather than to their ears, whose observations con- 

 tributed to throw a strong shade of suspicion over the 

 miraculous tales of their less circumspect predecessors. 

 But it was reserved for one of the most scientific of 

 modern travellers, the learned Baron Von Humboldt, 

 completely to dispel the mist of prejudice which had 

 so long enveloped the history of the Condor, and to 

 describe that bird such as it really exists ; to reduce 

 its dimensions, its powers, and its propensities, within 

 their just and natural limits, and to exhibit a faithful 

 and highly interesting portrait in the place of an extra- 

 vao-ant and grossly exaggerated caricature. To the 

 Essay on the Natural History of the Condor, which 

 forms part of the Zoological Observations made by 

 him in conjunction with M, Bonpland, we are indebted 

 not only for the removal of a prevailing delusion, but 

 also for the most authentic information which we pos- 

 sess with regard to the habits of the living bird in its 

 free and native state. 



The Condor forms the type of a genus, a second 

 species of which is the Vultur Papa of Linnaeus, the 

 King of the Vultures of British writers. They are 

 both peculiar to the New World, but approach in their 

 most essential characters very closely to the Vultures 

 of the Old Continent, diliering from the latter jjrin- 



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