or nign piaces, aua nave their young hatched Dimu uihj. 

 nf-arly naked, so that it is necessary for a time they should 

 be fed by their parents and remain in the nest. Tliese may 

 truly be regarded as the giants of the feathered race. The 

 iirst family is that of the condors, chiefly inhabitants of 

 America ; as the great vulture of the Andes and the 

 Californian vulture, both of vt-hich are not true xul- 

 tures, but properl}' condors. Birds belonging to these 

 species have been peculiarly noticed by travellers on 

 account of the great heights to which they soar ia the 

 air. A recent American writer says that he has re- 

 peatedly seen the condor sailing high above the loftiest 

 of the snowy Corderillas, at an .elevation of 16,000 feet 

 above the level of the ocean, with no apparent motion 

 of the wings, and yet in an air so attenuated, that where 

 he himself was stationed at thousands of feet below, the 

 rarity of the atmosphere rendered all eftbrts painful to 

 those not long accustomed to the light medium that there 

 prevails. The muscles in the wings of the condor are so 

 powerful that a blow from one of them has destroyed life. 



Pre-eminent lor size and strength the vultures exceed 

 all other birds whose powers of wing are adequate to 

 sustain continued flight. They are a race peculiar to 

 iot climates, and their food consists of putrid animal 

 substances, for a removal of which (where indeed a quick 

 lemoval is much called for) they seem expressly ap- 

 pointed. Their flight is wonderfully rapid and graceful, 

 and they are led by some faculty, not yet fully under- 

 stood, but most probably by an exceedingly acute sense 

 of smell, from astonisking distances, and at an elevation 

 in the atmosphere, beyond the reach of human sight, to 

 their fetid repast. In a tribe of birds thus characterised, 

 the Griffon Vulture, which is before us, is one of the 

 most conspicuous. The accompanying illustration ex- 

 hibits the manner in which the Golden Eagle devours 

 its prey ; this magnificent specimen is deposited doubt- 

 less in an adjoining case for the purpose of showing 



