8 CONDOR VULTURE. 



sometimes be supposed to arrive at a much greater 

 magnitude, and to measure in extent of wings 

 eleven or twelve feet. lie informs us that its usual 

 residence is among lofty rocks on the region of 

 the Andes just below the boundaries of perpetual 

 snow, and that it may be considered as a co-inha- 

 bitant with the Guanaco. It is a bird of a solitary 

 nature, and it is a rare circumstance to see more 

 than three or four together. When seated on the 

 point of a rock, and viewed from below, its form 

 being then contrasted with the clear sky above, it 

 appears considerably larger than it really is; and 

 this, according to Monsieur Humboldt, may have 

 been one cause of the exaggerated accounts of the 

 earlier describers. The prevailing colour of the 

 Condor is generally a deep raven-grey, but some- 

 times black : the crest, which is fleshy, or rather 

 cartilaginous, occupies the top of the head and 

 about a fourth part of the beak, and is entirely 

 wanting in the female: the skin of the neck is 

 dilated under the throat into a gular caruncle or 

 wattle, and along or down the sides of the neck runs 

 a wrinkled skinny stripe or band, the processes 

 of which are variously moveable at the pleasure 

 of the animal. The young Condor is entirely 

 naked of feathers, being covered, for several months, 

 with a fine whitish down, but which is so full or 

 thick as to give the young birds the appearance of 

 being almost as large as the old ones. At the age 

 of two years they have no black plumage, but 

 only tawny brown, and the female during this 



