THE-C9nL9R 



Volume X March-April 1908 N 



vimr>er 



I.IFE HISTORY OF THE CAI.IFORNIA CONDOR PART HI.— HOME 



IvlFE OF THE CONDORS 



By WILLIAM L. FINLBY 



WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY HERMAN T. BOHLMAN AND THE; AUTHOR 



IN the issue of The; Condor for November, 1906, I gave an account of finding the 

 nest and egg of a California Condor ((ryfnno£-yps californianus) in the moun- 

 tains of southern CaUfornia, which was accomplished thru the help of Mr. 

 Joseph Grinnell and Mr. Walter P. Taylor. In the last issue, January, 1908, I 

 dealt with the historical data and range of the California Condor. Most of the 

 material used was supplied me thru the kindness of Mr. W. Dee Chambers, who 

 has spent years in collecting this data. In the present paper I shall continue the 

 observations Mr. Bohlman and I made at the condor's nest, and tell something of 

 the home life of these birds. 



From what we knew of the nesting habits of the California Condor, we could 

 not tell whether the old birds would be shy and hard to photograph, or whether 

 they would show fight while we were working at their home. 



On April 11, 1906, we made another trip to the condor's cave. While ascending 

 the steep slope to the nest, a large bowlder was accidentally loosened and narrowly 

 missed taking the camera man along as it dropped into the canyon with a loud re- 

 port. The next moment, the old condor, aroused from her nest, flapped to her 

 perch in the dead tree directly over our heads. We watched and waited, hoping 

 she would return to the nest. But after about fifteen minutes, she raised her wings, 

 hooked her bill about the stump, parrot fashion, and climbed to a higher perch. 

 We crawled on up behind a cover of rocks to get a picture. While fixing the 

 camera, I looked up and the old male was just alighting beside his mate on the 

 dead tree. We crouched down to watch. If the birds saw us, they paid no atten- 

 tion to our presence. The mother edged along the limb and put her head under 

 his neck. Then she nosed him as if asking to be fed, but he responded rather cold- 

 ly by moving away and she followed. This crowded him out where the limb was 



