402 CONDOR. 
opinion was adopted by Brisson and Linné, and it became 
among naturalists generally a settled point, notwithstanding 
the eloquently expressed doubts of Buffon, who wanted rather, 
on account of its supposed great strength and agility, to elevate 
the condor to the rank of an eagle, these qualities not permit- 
ting him to degrade it so low as the vultures. But a still 
greater error of the French Pliny, as he may be on every 
account so appositely styled, was to consider the condor as not 
peculiar to America, but as a genuine cosmopolite, of which 
happily there were but few, however, for otherwise the human 
race would not have been able to stand against them. But it 
was only in its imaginary character that the condor of Buffon 
was truly cosmopolite, having no other existence than what 
was based upon absurd and ridiculous fictions gathered in all 
parts of the globe ; for no livmg bird could be placed in com- 
petition with one for whose powers of flight distance was no 
impediment, and whose strength and swiftness united would 
have rendered him lord of creation. 
We should, however, make some allowance for the credulity 
of our forefathers in believing, upon the reports of weak or 
lying travellers, all the romantic and extravagant tales related 
of this wondrous condor. They had not, as we have, the means 
of personally ascertaining the sober truth. But it is almost 
incredible, and remarkably illustrates the force of preconceived 
opinions, that in the year 1830 a traveller could be found with 
assurance enough to impose upon us, and journals, even of 
respectable standing, to copy as positive and authentic, a de- 
ecription of a condor of moderate size, just killed, and actually 
lying before the narrator, so large that a single quill-feather 
was twenty good paces long! ‘This indeed might have lifted 
an elephant, and it is quite unfortunate that Peru and Chili 
should no longer produce them for prey for such a bird, and 
that the mastodon is now extinct. So much for human credu- 
lity, which is often exercised upon more serious occasions, with 
equal impudence and much worse results. 
As in so many other instances of power based upon prejudice 
