296 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



is an untidy structure, built in the wildest part of the pine woods, 

 on lofty trees overhanging a precipice, or on the very rocks them- 

 selves. It is composed of thorny twigs and grass. The same 

 pair use the nest in successive years, but do not trouble much 

 about mending it as it becomes worse for wear. Incubation 

 takes from twenty-nine to thirty-one days. The nestlings can- 

 not leave the nest for five or six weeks, and have the bill and 

 bare neck blackish instead of orange. I have seen a photo- 

 engraving of a young bird which, with its curved beak, humped 

 shoulders, and body swathed in down, marvellously recalls the 

 Dodo as figured by the old voyagers ! The sprouting quills in 

 the wings, the big feet, and the absence of the tail heightened 

 the resemblance, and one could well understand how the old 

 ornithologists were at a loss whether to class the Dodo as 

 vulturine, struthious, or rasorial. 



To-day the Californian Condor — the largest bird of prey in- 

 habiting the United States — is represented by a miserable 

 remnant lingering in South-west California ; its distributional 

 area, once extending as far north as the Fraser Eiver in British 

 Columbia, is now a mere dot on the map. In the old days it 

 abounded every spring on the Columbia Eiver, feeding on the 

 Salmon cast up on the shore. It hung round the Indian villages 

 for the sake of the offal thrown away, and, together with Eavens 

 and Turkey Buzzards, visited the waterfalls and cascades of the 

 Salmon rivers. The fish, being obliged to take leaps at these 

 places in their progress along the stream, often landed themselves 

 high and dry amongst the bushes, and thus provided a meal for 

 the expectant Condors. The present species also fed on carrion, 

 and was very voracious. When gorged the birds perched on 

 decayed trees, and, with necks retracted and wings drooping 

 about their feet, presented a finished picture of satisfied gluttony. 

 When on the ground this Condor walked with a strut, like a 

 Turkey, but was obliged first to run or hop several yards before 

 launching itself into the air. Once on the wing its flight was 

 slow, steady, and graceful, its noble proportions dwarfing the 

 Turkey Buzzards in the same valley to mere Swallows. 



" Their quills are used by the hunters for tobacco-pipes," 

 observed Mr. David Douglas many years ago. Eecently the 

 Mexican and Indian gold-seekers have well-nigh exterminated 



