4 



CONDOR VULTURE. 



By this highly interesting specimen we are en- 

 abled to ascertain with precision many particulars 

 relative to the appearance of the bird which have 

 hitherto escaped observation. Of these one of 

 the most remarkable is a kind of gular pouch, or 

 large dilated skin, of a blueish colour, proceeding 

 from the base of the lower mandible, and reaching 

 to some distance down the neck. On each side 

 of the neck is also situated a row or series of flat, 

 carneous, semicircular, or ear shaped flaps or ap- 

 pendages, to the number of seven on each side, 

 and which gradually decrease in size as they de- 

 scend ; being so disposed as to lap slightly over 

 each other. The whole neck and breast are of a 

 red colour, and perfectly bare of feathers; being 

 only coated here and there with a few straggling 

 filaments of blackish hair or coarse down. The 

 colour of the lateral wattles or carunculoe inclines 

 to blueish. The crest or comb on the head is 

 large, upright, thick at the base, sharpened on its 

 edge, and not entirely even in its outline, but 

 somewhat sinuated, sinking slightly in the middle, 

 and rising higher on the back part : it is smooth, 

 and irregularly convex on the sides, and in its 

 texture or substance not greatly dissimilar to that 

 of the V. Papa of Linnaeus, or King Vulture. At 

 a slight distance behind this, on each side, is 

 situated a much smaller, semi-oval nuchal crest, 

 of a similar substance, and beset with coars^ 

 down. The colour of the crest is blackish, slightly 

 inchning to red and blue in some parts. Towards 

 the lower part of the neck is a pendent pear- 



