Birds. 6799 



characteristics of this rare and highly curious bird, a member of the 

 condor or sarcoramphus family of Dameril, which we have not been 

 able to find described or alluded to in any of the books on Natural 

 History in our possession ; and it may be that it is a species 

 unknown to naturalists. 



An intelligent Sonoranian of Oquitoa, near Alta in Sonora, who 

 resided in California several years, gave me the following facts, in 

 relation to this curious bird. It inhabits particularly the Pimaria, Alta 

 and Baja, the Papagoria, the Opataria, the Apacharia, and other Indian 

 and little-known mountain districts of Sonora, Durango and Sinaloa 

 to the East and South, and it is very rare even in these countries. It 

 is called Queleli by the Papago Indians, who have a great veneration 

 for it. Its weight is from eight to ten pounds. The beak is hard, 

 short, and curved sharply down, its colour bright lemon, the iris of the 

 eye pink or light red. On the crown of the head it has a tleshy 

 caruncle, or comb, of black and white, which forms like a cravat, and 

 also hangs on both sides of the head, and which is bare of feathers ; 

 the skin of the chops or cheeks is mottled black and white; the neck- 

 feathers are black, with a ring of white feathers below forming a ruff, 

 like a circle of swan's down on a lady's tippet ; the back is striped 

 black and white lengthwise of the bird ; the upper part of the wings 

 is also striped with black and white ; the ends of the wing-feathers 

 are tipped with white ; the tail-feathers are striped and tipped the 

 same as the wings ; the under surface of the wings is barred also in 

 the same way ; the wings measure from 12 to 18 inches long from the 

 joint at the body. The chest, belly and lower part oif body are of 

 lemon-coloured feathers ; the legs and feet are also yellow, with four 

 toes armed with black and very sharp claws. 



The female bird is of smaller size, the colour similar but more sub- 

 dued. The eggs are reddish and mottled black, sharply peaked, and 

 weigh about two ounces. They make their nests in the highest trees 

 of the mountain sides and peaks, and always go in couples, never 

 in flocks. When they rise from the ground they make a whirring, 

 rushing noise, moving very fast ; they are very rare throughout 

 Sonora, as my informant states, and extremely difficult to take. They 

 raise two young in a year, generally male and female. When young 

 their plumage is yellow, black and white. The full-grown birds are 

 about the size of the common Turkey buzzard. In six months the 

 young begin to fly. The females lay their eggs in the spring. They 

 are seen at times turning over and over in the air in quick motions, 

 from whence the Indians have a superstition that they breed in the 



