178 CLASS AVES. 



Nevertheless, all the Indians \vho inhabit the Andes of Quito 

 are unanimous that this bird is not dangerous to man. M. 

 de Humboldt even hesitates to believe that any well-authenti- 

 cated instance of a child having been attacked or carried off 

 by the laemmer-geyer of Switzerland can be produced. People 

 not unfrequently dread misfortunes, merely because they be- 

 lieve them possible ; simple probabilities are elevated in their 

 credence to the rank of historical facts. M. de la Condamine, 

 a writer of the utmost credibility, relates, that the Indians pre- 

 sent to the condor, by way of bait, the figure of an infant, com- 

 posed of very viscous clay, on which it immediately darts with 

 a rapid flight, and in which its talons become engaged so that 

 it is unable to extricate them. But that gentleman prudently 

 adds the qualifying terms, " on pretend." The figure of some 

 small quadruped would appear to be much more likely to 

 attract the presence of this formidable vulture. Nothing is 

 more common than to see the little children of the Indians 

 sleeping in the open air, while their fathers are employed in 

 gathering the snow to sell it in the neighbouring towns. Yet 

 who, asks M. de Humboldt, has ever heard of any of those 

 children, thus surrounded by condors, having been ever attacked 

 or killed ? 



Though the condor exclusively belongs to the chain of the 

 Andes; though it prefers situations more elevated than the 

 peak of TenerifFe or the summits of Mont-Blanc; though, of all 

 animals, it is the one which removes to the greatest distance 

 from the surface of our planet ; it is yet not less true, that 

 hunger will sometimes induce it to descend into the plains, and 

 more especially into those which border on this mighty moun- 

 tain chain. Condors are to be seen even on the shores of the 

 southern ocean, especially in the cold and temperate latitudes 

 of Chili, where the chain of the Andes may be almost said to 

 border on the margin of the Pacific. Still it is observed that 

 this bird sojourns but a few hours in these lower regions. It 

 prefers the mountain solitudes, where it respires a rarefied 



