CONDOR VULTURE. S 



feet when the wings v/ere extended. The bird is 

 said to have been coloured black and white like a 

 magpie, and furnished with a sharp, hard crest or 

 comb on the head. Other accounts add that the 

 throat is naked, and of a red colour, and that the 

 neck is surrounded by a white ruff or tippet. The 

 Count de Buffon imagines that these Vultures are 

 not peculiar to America, but that they are some- 

 times found in Europe, and seems inclined to think 

 that the species called by the Germans Lamner- 

 geyer may be the same bird ; but this seems now 

 to be clearly deter'nined in the negative ; the Lam- 

 ner-geyer of the Germans being no other than the 

 Vultur barbatus of Linnaeus. The Leyerian Mu- 

 seum was in possession of a pair of these noble 

 birds, both of which were brought, at difterent 

 periods, from the straits of Magellan. Both these 

 specimens were in the most perfect preservation, 

 and were supposed to be male and female. Both 

 have been described by myself in the work entitled 

 Museum Leverianum; the male under its establish- 

 ed title of V. Gryphus or Condor ; and the supposed 

 female under that of V. Magellanicus or Magella- 

 nic Vulture, it having been doubtful at that time 

 whether it w^as really the Gryphus of Linnaeus. The 

 subsequent introduction of the male bird removed 

 all uncertainty. I shall here repeat my former 

 description of these birds. 



Male. This magnificent specimen was brought 

 from the Magellanic coasts by Captain Middleton 

 of the Royal Navy, and was soon afterwards intro- 

 duced into the Leverian Museum. 



