BIRDS OF PREY. 161 
be given to the eagle, but -to the bird which figures in the ‘Thou- 
sand and One Nights” under the name of Roc, the condor, the giant 
of gigantic mountains, the Cordilleras. It is the largest of the 
vultures—is, fortunately, the rarest—and the most destructive, as it 
feeds only on live prey. When it meets with a large animal, it so 
gorges itself with meat that it is unable to stir, and may then be 
killed with a few blows of a stick. 
To judge these species truly we must examine the eyrie of the 
eagle, the rude, ill-constructed platform which serves for its nest; 
compare this rough and clumsy work—TI do not say with the delicate 
chef-V ewvre of a chaftinch’s nest—but with the constructions of 
insects, the excavations of ants, where the industrious workman 
varies his art to infinity, and displays a genius so singular in its 
foresight and resources. 
The traditional esteem which man cherishes for the courage of the 
great Raptores is much diminished when we read, in Wilson, that 
a tiny bird, a fly-catcher, such as the purple martin, will hunt the 
great black eagle, pursue it, harass it, banish it from its district, give 
it not a moment’s repose, It is a truly extraordinary spectacle to see 
this little hero, adding all his weight to his strength, that he may 
make the greater impression, rise and let himself drop from the clouds 
on the back of the large robber, mount without letting go, and prick 
him forward with his beak in lieu of a spur. 
Without going so far as America, you may see, in the Jardin des 
Plantes, the ascendancy of the little over the great, of mind over 
matter, in the singular téte-d-téte of the gypaetus and the crow. The 
latter, a very feeble animal, and the feeblest of birds of prey, which 
in his black garb has the air of a pedagogue, labours hard to civilize 
his brutal fellow-prisoner, the gypaetus. It is amusing to observe 
how he teaches him to play—humanizes him, so to speak—by a hun- 
dred tricks of his own invention, and refines his rude nature. This 
comedy is performed with special distinction when the crow has a 
reasonable number of spectators. It has appeared to me that he disdains 
to exhibit his savoir-faire before a single eye-witness. He calculates 
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