BIRDS OF PREY. 7 1 



ordinary courage, as the following extract from the journal of Sir Francis Head fully shows : — " In 

 riding along the plain I passed a dead horse, about which were forty or fifty Condors. Many of them 

 were gorged and unable to fly from repletion, several were standing on the ground, devouring the 

 carcase, the rest hovering over it. I rode within twenty yards of them, and saw one of them 

 displaying his strength as he lifted the flesh and tore out great pieces, sometimes shaking his head 

 and pulling with his beak, and sometimes pushing with his leg. Got to Mendoza and went to bed. 

 Wakened by one of my party who arrived. He told me that, seeing the Condors hovering in the air, 

 he also had ridden up to the dead horse, and as one of these enormous birds flew about fifty yards off 

 and was unable to go any further, he rode up to him, and, jumping off his horse, seized him by the 

 neck. The contest was as extraordinary as the rencontre was unexpected. My companion said that 

 he had never had such a battle in his life ; that he had put his knee upon the bird's breast and tried 

 with all his strength to twist his neck, but that the Condor, objecting to this, struggled violently, and, 

 moreover, that as several others were flying over his head he expected that they would attack him. 

 At last he succeeded in killing his antagonist, and showed me with great pride the large feathers from 

 his wings." 



The preparations made by these birds for their young are extremely slight ; indeed, in most 

 instances the two eggs laid by the female are deposited upon the bare rock. The eggs are large, the 

 shell yellowish white, spotted with brown. When first hatched, the young are covered with a coat 

 of grey down ; they grow but slowly, and remain under the protection of their parents long after they 

 are fully fledged. Some tribes of Indians prize the heart and other portions of the body of the 

 Condor as invaluable specifics for many serious maladies, and more than one modern writer has 

 testified to their efficacy in certain complaints. When caged this gigantic bird has been known to 

 become comparatively tame, and attached to its keeper. 



THE CALIFORNIAN CONDOR. 

 The Californian Condor (Sarcorhamphus Californianus), as the second member of this group 

 is called, is found throughout the mountains of California. According to Taylor, this bird is four feet 

 six inches in length (of which fifteen inches belong to the tail), and eight feet four inches across the 

 span of the wings. Its plumage is of an uniform dark brown or black, marked upon the wings with a 

 triangular spot; the breast is dirty white, as are the exterior feathers of the under surface of the wings; 

 the head, with the exception of a three-cornered stripe covered with small feathers, is bright lemon 

 yellow ; the neck is of a dirty flesh colour. The habits of this species resemble those of its congeners, 

 but it is found in larger numbers near the coast, and subsists principally upon fish. 



THE KING OF THE VULTURES. 

 The King of the Vultures {Sarcorhamphus papa) has lately been separated from the preceding 

 under the name of Gyparchus, owing to some slight variety in the shape of its nostrils. This bird, 

 known to the writers of former days under the significant appellation, " King of the Vultures," 

 is well worthy of the place thus assigned to it, both as regards its size and general aspect, as 

 well as for the mastery it asserts over other members of its family. Its plumage is extremely 

 beautiful ; the fore part of the back and upper wing-covers are bright reddish white, the belly and 

 lower covers pure white, and the wing and tail deep black ; the ruff around the neck, and the outer 

 web of the quills are grey ; the top of the head and face are covered with short, stiff, flesh-coloured 

 bristles or feathers. The region of the eye exhibits a number of remarkable warts, which, like the 

 folds of skin that pass over the back of the head, are dark red ; the cere, neck, and head are light 

 yellow, the deep, lappet-like wattle is black, the beak yellowish white at its tip, bright red in the 



