1772 Birds. 



rately determined and traced than it is at present.— Archibald Jerdon ; Roxburghshire, 

 May 8th, 1847. 



Curious Ornithological Record. — A very curious fact touching the former orni- 

 thology of Middlesex, and the economy of London, is mentioned by the old naturalist, 

 Charles Clusuis, in a note to his translation of the works of the French ornithologist, 

 Pierre Belon : as I have never seen it recorded anywhere else, it may perhaps be 

 worth inserting in the ' Zoologist : ' — 



" Vix majorem in Cairo milviorum frequentiam conspici existimo, quam Londini 

 Trenobantium in Britannid, qui nullo non anni tempore frequentissimi istic apparent, 

 cum eos enim interficere vetitum sit, ut spurcitiem in plateas, vel etiam ipsum flumen 

 Thamesin qui urbem alluit ab incolis ejectum, legant et devorent ; maxima quantitate 

 ed confluent, adeoque cicures redduntur, ut per confectos etiam homines praedam ab 

 ipsis in alto volantibus conspectam, comissere non vereantur, quod saepenumero dum 

 istic essem, admiratus sum." — Opera C. Clusii,p. 108, 



Clusius visited England about the reign of Charles 1st, and a fact like this of daily 

 occurrence, and therefore little likely to be recorded by a native of London, would 

 strike a foreigner as remarkable. Now, as the kite is becoming one of our rarer birds, 

 and is hardly ever seen in the neighbourhood of London, this reminiscence of its former 

 frequency, when a welcome guest, and before the deadly invention of the modern fowl- 

 ing-piece, had rendered the wings even of this powerful bird but a poor safe-guard, 

 may not be unwelcome to ornithologists. — Charles Prentice ; 1, Oxford Villas, Chelten- 

 ham, April 13th, 1847. 



The Condor. — " In these sterile heights Nature withholds her fostering influence 

 alike from vegetable and animal life. The scantiest vegetation can scarcely draw nu- 

 triment from the ungenial soil, and animals shun the dreary and shelterless wilds. 

 The condor alone finds itself in its native element amidst these mountain deserts. On 

 the inaccessible summits of the Cordillera this bird builds its nest, and hatches its 

 young in the months of April and May. Few animals have obtained so universal a 

 celebrity as the condor. That bird was known in Europe, at a period when his native 

 land was numbered among those fabulous regions which are regarded as the scenes of 

 imaginary wonders. The most extravagant accounts of the condor were written and 

 read, and general credence was granted to every story which travellers brought from 

 the fairy land of gold and silver. It was only at the commencement of the present 

 century that Humboldt overthrew the extravagant notions that previously prevailed 

 respecting the size, strength, and habits of this extraordinary bird. 



" The full-grown condor measures, from the point of the beak to the end of the 

 tail, from four feet, ten inches, to live feet ; and from the tip of one wing to the tip of: 

 the other, from twelve to thirteen feet. This bird feeds chiefly on carrion : it is 

 only when impelled by hunger that he seizes living animals, and even then only the 

 small and defenceless, such as the young of sheep, vicunas, and llamas. He cannot 

 raise great weights with his feet, which, however, he uses to aid his beak. The 

 principal strength of the condor lies in his neck and in his feet; yet he cannot, when 

 flying, carry a weight exceeding eight or ten pounds. All accounts of sheep and 

 calves being carried off by condors are mere exaggerations. This bird passes a great 

 part of the day in sleep, and hovers in quest of prey chiefly in the morning and eve- 

 ning. Whilst soaring at a height beyond the reach of human eyes the sharp-sighted 

 condor discerns his prey on the level heights beneath him, and darts down upon it with 



