496 PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC. SOCIETIES. 
never found one to measure over nine feet; and the largest specimen 
which Darwin saw, was eight and one half feet from tip to tip. Ano 
male in the Zoological Gardens of London, measures eleven feet. It is 
not yet settled that this greatest of unclean birds is generically distinct 
from the other great vultures. My own observation of the structure an 
habits of the Condor, incline me to think it should stand alone. Asso- 
ciated with the great Condor is a smaller vulture, having brown or ash- 
colored plumage instead of black and white, a beak wholly black instead 
of black at the base and white at the tip, and no caruncle. It inhabits 
nounced it the young of the xi sips A gryphus —a conclusion which 
the = did not seem wholly to endorse 
to the royal Condor, Acsi Orton aered the following observa- 
Mus either new or corroborative: Its usual habitation is between the 
altitudes of. ten thousand and sixteen thousand feet. The largest seem 
coast, where they may be seen roosting on pean on the E te 
rarely perch, but stand on the rocks. ey are most commonly seen 
around vertical cliffs, perhaps because their nests are there, and also be- 
cause cattle are likely to fall there. Flocks are never seen except around 
a large carcass. It is often seen singly, soaring at a great height in vast 
narrow pen is therefore sufficient to imprison it. In walking the wings 
carrion bird it breathes the purest air, spends much of its time soaring 
three miles above the sea. Humboldt saw one fly over Chimborazo. I 
have seen them sailing at one thousand feet above the crater of Pichincha. 
ts gormandizing power has hardly been overstated. I have known a 
single Condor, not of the largest size, to make way in one week with a 
calf, a sheep, and a dog. It prefers carrion, but will sometimes attack 
authenticated case of its carrying off children, nor of it attacking adults, 
xcept in defence of its eggs. In captivity it will eat everything except 
pork and fried or boiled meat, When full fed it is exceedingly stupid, 
and can be caught by the hand; but at other times it is a match for the: 
stoutest man. It T" sses the greater part of the day sleeping, searching 
for prey in the morning and evening. It is seldom shot (though it is not 
invulnerable as once PYTA but is generally caught in traps. The 
nly noise it makes, is a hiss like that of a goose — the usual tracheal 
muscle being eines It lays two white eggs on an inaccessible ledge. 
It makes no nest proper, but places a few sticks around the eggs. By no 
