The California Condor 



head and neck naked, except on forehead and face, narrowly, where close-set black 

 feathers persistent; the skin of head and neck orange or orange-red in life; bill chiefly 

 orange-colored, crossed at the eyes with a black band; feet and legs rosy flesh-colored. 

 Young birds up to the fourth year lack the white markings and have more decided 

 brown edgings to the feathers; neck of young birds is more or less covered with sooty 

 down, and the bill and naked skin of head are dusky. Length of adult 1219.2-1371.6 

 (4 to 4K feet); extent 2743-2794 (9-1 1 feet); weight 20-25 pounds; wing 762-914.4 

 (30.00-36.00); tail 381-457.2 (15.00-18.00); bill from nostril including unfeathered 

 portion of cere 69.9 (2.75) ; the culmen proper 38.1 (1.50) ; tarsus 115.6-140.9 (4.50-5.50). 



Recognition Marks. — Giant size; larger than Turkey Vulture or Eagle, but 

 white under ■wing-coverts the best field mark. 



Nesting. — Single egg, deposited on ledge or in cranny of inaccessible cliff, for- 

 merly also in hollow tree or log; white with a bluish or greenish, rarely a creamy tinge, 

 unmarked; elongate ovate. Av. size 114.3 x 63.5 (4.50 x 2.50). Season: January- 

 March; one chick. 



General Range. — The south central coast ranges of California and the mountains 

 of northern Lower California. Formerly much more abundant and ranging north at 

 least to the Columbia River and casually east of the Sierras (Owens Valley) and Ari- 

 zona. 



Distribution in California. — Represented in dwindling numbers, and now 

 confined to south central coast ranges from southern San Benito and Monterey counties 

 south to northern Los Angeles County. Occurrences along the Sierran foothills are 

 probably to be interpreted as wanderings of birds resident in the inner coastal ranges. 

 Unquestionably less than 100 birds, probably not more than 40, still preserved in Cali- 

 fornia. 



Authorities. — Shaw (Yultur calif omianus) , Nat. Misc., ix., 1797, pi. 301 (orig. 

 desc. ; "Coast of Calif.") ; Gambel, Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 2, i., 1847, p. 25 

 (Calif.; habits, food); Ridgway, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, vol. v., 1880, pp. 79, 82 (crit.; 

 nomencl.; meas., comparison with S. Am. Condor); Miller, Univ. Calif. Publ. Geol., 

 vol. vi., 1910, p. 6 (fossil); Finley, Condor, vol. viii., 1906, p. 135, figs. (desc. and photos 

 of nest, egg, young, etc.; habits); ibid., vol. x., 1908, p. 5 (photos; meas., weights, etc.); 

 ibid., vol. x., p. 59 (photos; habits, etc.). 



IF I WERE to propound the question, Where is the heart of Califor- 

 nia? there would be a dozen instant and clamorous voices, each with a 

 valid claim to urge. The heart of California? It is the Golden Gate, 

 most romantic of portals, through which the Argonauts entered the land 

 of dreams, thronged now with the roaring traffic of Occident and Ind. 

 It is San Francisco, the passionate, the beloved, the furnace-tried, the 

 unconquerable, now conquering herself and bearing rule with the imper- 

 iousness of self-possession. It is the Valley of the Sacramento, where the 

 Capital City sits among her sun-burned wheat-fields, or surveys in dismay 

 the lessening population of her winter wild geese. It is Placerville, or 

 Angels' Camp, where the gold-seekers tore at the face of Mother Earth 

 and prayed for fortune, or fought and drank and swore and forgot, or 

 found reality, according to their kind. It is Los Angeles, that uncounted 



1718 



