998 ZOOLOGY. 
This sub-family consists of two genera of small vultures inhabiting southern 
Asia and Africa, one of which, the Neophron percnopterus, Linn., occasionally 
visits Europe, and has been found in Great Britain. It has been represented 
as exceedingly disgusting in its habits, preying only upon decaying animal 
matter, and very familiar in the streets and neighborhood of cities. It 
is this species which is most frequently alluded to by travellers in countries 
(and especially the cities) of Southern Asia and Northern Africa, and is 
usually called the Egyptian Vulture. Another species has been discovered 
in Abyssinia: and a distinct genus, comprising only one species, is found in 
Western Africa. It is the Gypohierax angolensis, Gm., or the Angola 
Vulture. 
These are all timid and weak birds, and devour all forms of animal filth - 
with unexampled greediness. | 
Sub-fam. 5. Sarcoramphine or American Vultures. Head and neck 
more or less naked, and with the skin either carunculated or corrugated. 
Bill lengthened and rather slender, but strong at the tip, which is curved and 
acute ; nostrils placed m the cere, with the opening large, exposed, and longi- 
tudinal. Wings long and pointed; tarsi long; middle toe long. Size 
various, comprehending the largest and the smallest of the vultures. Color 
black. 
The species of this sub-family are peculiar to America and constitute two 
well defined genera, Sarcoramphus, or the Condors, and Cathartes, which 
includes the Turkey Buzzard and Carrion Crows. The Condor (pl. 104, fig. 
11) is the largest of all rapacious birds. It inhabits Central and South 
America, generally frequenting the vicinity of the high mountain ranges, in 
which it rears its young at an elevation of ten to sixteen thousand feet above 
the level of the sea, above which it is represented by travellers as soaring 
to a vastly greater height. The eggs are laid upon the bare rock, two in 
number, white, and about four inches in length. The condor feeds princi- 
pally upon young animals, but several in company are said to attack the llama 
and other large quadrupeds, and readily overpower them. Very extravagant 
stories were carried to Europe by the earlier voyagers respecting the size and 
prowess of the condor, some of which gained considerable currency, and in 
fact the bird and its habits were little known until observed in South 
America by the celebrated Humboldt. It appears, notwithstanding its large 
size and great strength, to partake in a considerable measure of the dis- 
position to familiarity and susceptibility of semi-domestication which. prevail 
amongst the carrion crows and other of the American vultures. Dr. Gambel, 
in an account of this bird published in the Journal of the Academy of Nat. 
Sci. of Phila. vol. 1. p. 25 (quarto), has the following remarkable and 
interesting paragraph: “A condor which I saw at Valparaiso in 1845 
lived at large in the city, and appeared to be an universal favorite. It would 
follow after or walk alongside of a person like a dog, and offered no re- 
sistance to being handled or having its feathers smoothed down: so good- 
natured was it that it would receive the caresses of children, and permit 
them to beat it with switches or even attempt to get upon its back. In 
fact, I have never met with any bird which exhibited more tame- 
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