418 CONDOR. 
Their eggs are usually laid on the naked rock, or with very 
little preparation, and never on trees, which they even avoid 
alighting on, unlike their congeners in this respect, and always 
on rocks or the ground, the straightness of their nails making 
this easier for them. The eggs are white, and three or four 
inches long. The young are entirely covered with very soft 
whitish down, and the mother is said to provide for them dur- 
ing along time. The facts relative to their propagation are 
not, however, sufficiently ascertained, for how are we to verify 
assertions relating to operations performed so much beyond 
the reach of ordinary observation ? 
Authors describe various modes that have been resorted to 
for destroying the condors in their native countries, where 
they sometimes become a nuisance ; such as poisoning carrion, 
seizing them by the legs by hiding under the skin of a calf, 
and by building narrow enclosures in which is placed putrid 
flesh, when the birds flying down and feeding greedily, are 
unable to take wing again for want of space to get a start by 
running. But we scarcely see any advantage in such strata- 
gems, since they may be caught with running knots while 
disabled by repletion, or even, as it is reported, knocked down 
with clubs ; and in any case, we are at a loss to reconcile such 
persecutions with the protection so wisely granted them both 
by civilised and savage man. 
In captivity, the condor is easily tamed if taken young, and 
does not refuse any kind of animal food whatever, nor do they 
appear to dread or suffer in the least from the extreme changes 
of the climate in Kurope and the north-eastern parts of 
America. But it is almost impossible to keep the adults, 
which are always exceedingly wild and mischievous. They 
are incredibly tenacious of life: the bones are so hard as to 
resist a musket-ball, to which also the thick down of their 
plumage is impenetrable. They can resist strangulation for 
hours, even when hanged and hard pulled by the feet. A 
remarkable fact is that in domesticity they will not refuse 
water, drinking it in a very peculiar manner, by holding their 

