AIO CONDOR. 
Their flight, though slow, is protracted for a greater length 
of time than even perhaps that of the eagle, though more 
laborious and heavy. ‘They elevate themselves to such won- 
derful heights, that as they describe circle after circle they 
gradually appear no larger than a swallow, next a mere speck 
is visible, then disappearing altogether from the limited power 
of human vision. Not, however, beyond their own, for as they 
hover over the country beneath, they can discover a carcass or 
carrion anywhere over a very wide district. In the Hast they 
are well known to follow the caravans; in Africa and South 
America they accompany and wait upon the hunter’ssteps. If 
a beast is flayed and abandoned, calling to each other with 
shrill but resounding voice, they pour down upon the carcass, 
and in a short time, so dexterously do they manage the opera- 
tion, nothing remains but the naked skeleton. Jf the skin 
should be left on the prey they discover, an entrance is soon 
made through the belly, by which they extract all but the 
bones, which are left so well covered by the skin as hardly to 
show that they have been at work there. Should a sickly ox 
or smaller animal be accidentally exposed defenceless, or from 
any cause unable to resist, the vultures fall upon and devour 
him without mercy in the same manner. Thus in the moun- 
tainous districts of hot countries, in which they are very 
numerous, the hunter who wishes to secure his game dares 
not quit an animal he may have killed, for fear of its immedi- 
ately becoming their prey. Le Vaillant, while in Africa, met 
with frequent losses through the rapacity of these parasites, 
which, immediately notified by the calling of the crows, flocked 
around in multitudes, and speedily devoured large animals 
that he had killed, depriving him not only of his own meal, 
but of many a valuable specimen intended as a contribution 
to science. ‘They may be frequently seen tearing a carcass in 
company with dogs or other ravenous quadrupeds, such associ- 
ations producing no quarrel, however Jean and hungry both 
may be. Harmony always subsists, so long as they have 
plenty, among creatures of dispositions so congenial. But 
