The California Condor 



Messrs. George and Henry Peck, both of 

 whom he testifies to be reliable ornithologists 

 and well acquainted with the species in south- 

 ern California. John Fannin, some time 

 curator of the Provincial Museum at Vic- 

 toria, B. C, claims to have seen two Condors 

 at Burrard Inlet (near Vancouver) in Sep- 

 tember, 1880, and again two on September 

 10, 1896, in Alberta between Calgary and the 

 Rocky Mountains. 1 In the latter instance 

 the observer was almost certainly mistaken. 

 He probably saw Golden Eagles, which in the 

 adolescent plumage exhibit a faint patch on 

 the under surface of the wing, and so remind 

 the uninitiated of the well-known diagnostic 

 mark of the Condor. It would be cruel to 

 suggest that the same mistake might have 

 been made at Burrard Inlet, and the occur- 

 rence, if true, would be much less remarkable, 

 because the Fraser River in salmon time 

 offers much the same attraction as did the 

 Lower Columbia a century ago. 



But whatever the former range of the 

 Condor, and the early records are very meager, 

 it is certain that its present range does not 

 extend north of Monterey. And while it was 

 probably never anything more than acciden- 

 tal east of the Sierras, its occurrence upon the 

 western slopes of those mountains, even upon 

 the lowest foothills, is now rarely noted. Its 

 present range, as nearly as we can make out, 

 is restricted to portions of nine California 

 counties. Civilization has about done for the 

 Condor, as it has done for the bison, the 

 grizzly, the bighorn and the antelope, or, for 

 that matter, the Indian. But because this 

 process is still going on before our eyes, it 



becomes pertinent to inquire as to the exact causes of the Condor's de- 

 crease. Among these, I would place first and foremost, gunfire. The 

 wanton destruction of these noble birds has gone steadily forward until 

 very recent years. Since our constitutional guarantees have made every 



1 The Auk. Vol. XIV.. Jan. 1897, p. 89. 



Taken in Los A ngeles County 



Photo by Finley and Bohlman 



PORTRAIT OF CALIFORNIA CONDOR 



NOTE THE REGAL RUFF AT ITS BEST 



1733 



