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THE CALIFORNIAN CONDOR. 



" Unguibus et rostro tarda trahet ilia vultur." — Ovid. 



By Graham Renshaw, M.B., F.Z.S. 



The indirect extermination of animals, due to what may 

 almost be termed accidental causes, has in recent years become 

 only too rapid, and still continues. The classical instance of this 

 is perhaps the extinction of the Rhytina, or Sea-Cow, of the 

 Northern Pacific, killed off for provision by men who were pri- 

 marily mere fur-hunters. Here one has a wheel within a wheel, 

 for the loss of the Rhytina also meant the extinction of the 

 Cyamus rhytince, a sea-louse, parasitic on its hide, and of an 

 unknown ascarid worm, which infested its stomach. In modern 

 days the flightless Kakapo, or Ground Parrot, has all but vanished 

 under the attacks of Stoats imported to destroy the New Zealand 

 Rabbits ; the West Indian Doves have been decimated by the 

 Rat-hunting Mongoose ; the Haytian Solenodon — that curious 

 insectivore — has become so rare that in five months a recent 

 writer obtained but one specimen — thanks again to the Mon- 

 goose. Another instance of indirect extermination is the gradual 

 disappearance of the Californian Condor. 



The Californian Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is a fine 

 bird, measuring in good specimens nearly eleven feet in expanse 

 of wing, and weighing from twenty to twenty-five pounds. The 

 beak is whitish or pale yellowish, and is three and a half inches 

 long ; the nostrils are small, and pointed anteriorly ; the head is 

 small, bare, and smooth, being, together with the bare neck, of 

 a yellow or orange colour. General hue of the plumage sooty 

 blackish ; upper wing-coverts tipped with white ; under wing- 

 coverts entirely ivhite, a character by which the species is at once 

 recognized. The legs are blackish brown ; the closed wings reach 

 a little beyond the tip of the tail. 



The eggs of this rare Condor are greenish white ; two is the 

 number in a clutch, but sometimes there is only one. The nest 



