CONDOR. — Sarcorhamphus Gryphus^ 



three oaks, and was of such dimensions that a wagon might have taken refuge under its 

 shelter. The eggs of this bird are two in number, and their ground colour is a 

 dirty white, washed with irregular brown patches. 



On account of a curious fleshy appendage which decorates the base of the bill and the 

 neighbouring portions of the head, a small group of Vultures has been separated from the 

 remaining species, and gathered into a family under the appropriate title of Sarcorhamphidae, 

 or Flesh-bearded Vulture. This family is but a small one, comprising the Condor, the 

 King Vulture, and the well-known American Vultures, or Zopilotes. 



Although not exceeding the lammergeyer in dimensions, the Condor has been long 

 celebrated as a Goliath among birds, the expanse of its wings being set down at eighteen 

 or twenty feet, and its strength exaggerated in the same proportion. In reality, the 

 expanse of a large Condor's wing will very seldom reach eleven feet, and the average 

 extent is from eight to nine feet. In one specimen, where the measurement of the extended 

 wings was only eight feet one inch, the largest quill feather of the wings was two feet 

 two inches in length ; the diameter of tlie body was nine inches, and the total length from 

 the point of the beak to the extremity of the tail, v^s three feet two inclies. 



