LECTURE V. 1^^ 



the bird was fresh killed, are said to have mea- 

 sured nearly fourteen feet from tip to tip. This 

 specimen affords an opportunity of rectifying ai^ 

 important error in the description of the Condor 

 given by general observers, who have seen it 

 in its native regions, but probably at a distance, 

 and with its wings closed ; for such descrip- 

 tions tell us that the back of the bird is milk- 

 white, which is not the case, but the mistake 

 may be supposed to have arisen from the white 

 wing-feathers folding over the back when the 

 wings are closed. In such descriptions also, the 

 tail is said to be small, whereas, on the contrary, 

 it is large in proportion to the bird. The ac- 

 counts of the Condor, by some of the earlier 

 historians of the Western Continent are singu- 

 larly curious, and such as the more sober phi- 

 losophic faith of European Naturalists could 

 hardly be supposed to admit. These writers 

 assure us that the Vulture called the Condor is 

 capable of snatching up, and carrying off boys 

 of upwards of ten years of age ; that a pair 

 of these destroyers in concert, will attack a heifer 

 in the midst of a field, and tear it in pieces with 

 tl>e utmost ease. In short, the descriptions of 



