ORDER ACCIPITRES. 179 



atmosphere, in which the barometer does not rise above 16. 

 On this account, in the Andes of Peru and Quito, many small 

 groups of rocks, and platforms elevated 2450 toises above the 

 level of the sea, bear the names of Cuntur-Kahua, Cuntur- 

 Palti, Cuntur-Huachana, names signifying, in the Inca lan- 

 guage, watch-tower, brooding place, or nest of the condors. 



M. de Humboldt, during his travels in America, never saw 

 the condor except in the kingdom of New Granada, in the 

 province of Quito, and in Peru. He was informed, however, 

 that it follows the chain of the Andes, from the equator even 

 into the province of Antioquia, to the seventh degree of north 

 latitude. The western Cordillera, or that branch of the Andes 

 which by Choco extends towards the isthmus of Panama, 

 appears to be elevated too little to be the habitation of the 

 condor. Connecting under the same point of view the geogra- 

 phy of plants with that of animals, it may be said that the 

 condor proceeds no farther towards the isthmus than the quin- 

 quina, the be/aria, the escallonia, and other alpine plants of 

 the higher Andes. M. de Humboldt is ignorant whether this 

 bird is found to the north of Panama. M. Sonnini has ven- 

 tured to assert that the condor has been seen in Mexico ; but 

 this is extremely doubtful, for the cozcaquauhtli, a bird which 

 plays no inconsiderable part in the mythology of the Aztecs, 

 is the vultur papa, and inhabits, by preference, warm, or at 

 least very temperate climates. Travellers, for a long time, were 

 in the habit of giving the name of condor to every bird of prey 

 of extraordinary size. It has even appeared in print, that 

 condors have been killed in Africa, in Asia, nay, in the very 

 heart of France — at Chateauneuf on the Loire. 



As the eastern branch of the Andes extends through the 

 mountains of Pampelona to those of Merida, which are covered 

 with eternal snow, it would be interesting to know if the condor 

 extended its migration to the neighbourhood of the sea of the 

 Antilles. It is certain that it is found on the eastern dechvity 

 of the central chain of Quindiu in the environs of Ibague, but 



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