THE KING VULTURE. 232 
the secondaries are also white. The adult male bird may easily be dis- 
tinguished by the amount of white upon the feathers, so that the wings are 
marked with a large white patch. Around the neck is set a beautifully white 
downy collar of soft feathers, which does not entirely inclose the neck, but 
leaves a small naked band in front. This featherless band is, however, so 
small, that it is not perceptible except by a close examination. 
The crest of the male Condor is of considerable size, occupying the 
pop et the head and extending over a fourth of the basal portion of the 
eak, 
The Condor is an inhabitant of the mountain chain of the Andes, and is 
celebrated not only for its strength and dimensions, but for its love of 
elevated localities. When enjoying the unrestricted advantages of its 
native home, it is seldom found lower than the line of perpetual snow, and 
only seems to seek lower and more temperate regions when driven by hunger 
to make a raid on the flocks or the wild quadrupeds of its native country. 
Although preferring carrion to the flesh of recently-killed animals, the 
Condor is a terrible pest to the cattle-keeper, for it will frequently make an 
attack upon a cow or a bull, and by dint of constant worrying, force the poor 
beast to succumb to its winged pursuers. Two of these birds will attack 
a vicugna, a deer, or even the formidable puma, and as they direct their 
assaults chiefly upon the eyes, they soon succeed in blinding their prey, 
who rapidly falls under the terrible blows which are delivered by the beaks 
of its assailants. 
The Condor deposits its eggs, for it makes no nest whatever, upon a bare 
shelf of some lofty rock. The eggs are two in number, greyish white in 
colour, and are laid about November or Decemder. When the young Con- 
dor is hatched it is nearly naked, but is furnished with a scanty covering 
of down, which in a short time becomes very plentiful, enveloping the body 
in a complete vestment of soft black plumage. The deep black grey of the 
adult bird is not attained until a lapse of three years, the colour of the 
plumage being a yellowish brown. 
THE KING VULTURE has gained its regal title from a supposition which is 
prevalent among the natives of the country which it inhabits, that it wields 
royal sway over the aura, or zopilote Vultures, and that the latter birds will 
not venture to touch a dead carcass until the King Vulture has taken his 
share. There is some truth for this supposition, for the King Vulture will 
not permit any other bird to begin its meal until its own hunger is satisfied. 
The same habit may be seen in many other creatures, the rore powerful 
lording it over the weaker, and leaving them only the remains of the feast 
instead of permitting them to partake of it on equal terms. But if the King 
Vulture should not happen to be present when the dead animal has reached 
a state of decomposition which renders it palatable to vulturine tastes, the 
subject Vultures would pay but little regard to the privileges of their absent 
monarch, and would leave him but aslight prospect of getting a meal on the 
remains of the feast. 
Waterton, who often mentions this species in his interesting works, gives 
several curious instances of the sway which the King Vulture exercises over 
the inferior birds. ‘ When I had done with the carcass of the large snake, it 
was conveyed into the forest, as I expected that it would attract the king of 
the Vultures, as soon as time should have rendered it sufficiently savoury. In 
a few days it sent forth the odour which a carcass should send forth, and 
about twenty of the common Vultures came and perched on the neighbouring 
trees. The king of tiie Vultures came too, and IJ observed that none of the 
common ones seemed inclined to begin breakfast until his majesty had 
finished. When he had consumed as much snake as nature informed him 
