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have defcribed it from a curfory view, cither from the living bird, when 

 feated at fome diftance with its wings clofed, or from too inattentive a fur- 

 vey of the dead fpecimen. Such defcriptions tell us that the back of the 

 bird is white ; which, on the contrary, is coal-black ; an error moft evidently 

 owing to having feen the bird with the wings clofed over the back, fo that 

 the white fecondaries covered it from view. This erroneous defcription is 

 copied by Dr. Gmelin, in his new edition of the Syftema Naturae of Lin- 

 naeus, from Molina, who has given a fimilar one himfelf. Molina's defcrip- 

 tion feems alfo to have mifled Mr. Latham, who, in his Index Ornithologicus, 

 has defcribed the Condor as having the back white inftead of black. In 

 Mr. Kerr's tranflation of Gmelin's edition of the Syftema Naturae, the felf- 

 fame miftake is again repeated : fo widely does an error once received fpread 

 its contagion thro" fucceeding pages. I muft add, that in all thefe defcrip- 

 tions the tail is exprefsly faid to be fmall ; which, on the contrary, is ra- 

 ther large in proportion to the bird. 



PARADISEA 



