194 WILD ANIMAL CELEBEITIES 



hour at a time. His favorite amusement was 

 to hop up a ladder placed against a tree; up 

 he would go, rung by rung, and then in his 

 clumsy manner lift his big wings and fly off. 

 This he would do over and over again. From 

 his many observations Mr. Finley has come 

 to the conclusion that there are a great many 

 good characteristics in this bird, which has 

 always been considered more or less of a de- 

 generate. 



When the young condor reached the New 

 York Zoological Park, he weighed twenty 

 pounds and a half, was forty-six inches in 

 length, and the spread of his wings measured 

 eight feet. The fact that General's history 

 has been carefully followed from the egg 

 stage right up to the present time makes this 

 instance quite unique in the wild bird records 

 of this country. 



It has been generally supposed that the 

 eggs of the great auk were the rarest of their 

 kind, but between seventy and eighty great 

 auks' eggs have been preserved, and there are 

 only forty-one condor eggs in the museums 



