600 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



he saved himself by shooting her, and then not before he had re- 

 ceived some severe wounds. 



They live in pairs, and a number are rarely seen together. This 

 is common to all animals which Nature has endowed with a great 

 amount of physical strength, for it is the weak only which practise 

 the maxim, " Union is strength." 



These birds were once far more plentiful in Europe than now. 

 The reason of this is the great havoc which was made among them 

 in the last century. Even at the present day pursuit of them is en- 

 couraged by the grant of a reward to the person who kills one. This 

 and the number of eggs they lay being limited (two), there is but little 

 cause for surprise that the species is very sensibly diminishing. 



In the birds which belong to the Sarcoramphus family the base 

 of the bill is furnished with a ring of feathers, and the bill itself 

 is surmounted with a thick and scalloped fleshy crest ; from this 

 peculiarity of organisation they derive their name, the signification of 

 Sarcoramphus being " fleshy-billed." 



This genus comprises but two species, the Condor and the King 

 Vulture. 



The Condor, from the word Cantur, in the Peruvian language 

 {Sarcoramphus gryphus, Fig. 281), commonly called the Great Vulture 

 of the Andes, is the most remarkable species of the Vulture family, 

 both for its size and strength, and also for the vast extent of the 

 stretch of its wings. Its plumage is of a dark blue, approaching to 

 black ; its collar, which occupies only the back and sides of the neck, 

 is formed of a dazzling white down. Its crest, bevelled off at the 

 edge, is cartilaginous in its nature, and of a bluish colour, and ex- 

 tends down the side of the neck in two fleshy strings. Lastly, the 

 male has two fleshy appendages under the lower mandible, level with 

 the collar. The wings are as long as the tail, their whole develop- 

 ment being ten or twelve feet. The length of the bird from the point 

 of the bill to the tip of the tail is on an average about four feet. 



The chief habitat of the Condor is the western slope of the chain 

 of the Andes, Bolivia, Peru, and Chili ; it frequents all the different 

 altitudes, from the burning sands of the sea-coast to the ice-bound 

 solitudes of perpetual snow. Humboldt and Bonpland, when exploring 

 the Andes, repeatedly noticed Condors close round them when at a 

 height of 15,700 feet above the level of the sea. D'Orbigny saw them 

 as high up as the summit of Illimani ; and he likewise met with 

 them on the coasts of Peru and Patagonia, seeking their food among 

 the various debris which the waves had thrown upon the shore, 

 proving that they can support variations of temperature which man 



