3tz TRAVELS IN 
have been very confiderable, if we may judge 
from its mufcles and fmews ; and I am per- 
fuaded there is not a ftronger among the whole 
order of carnivorous birds, not excepting the 
famous condor, which fo many travellers have 
leen, but of w^hich their defcriptions are fo 
diiTerent as to render its exigence extremely 
doubtful. Thus much at leaft is certain — there 
is no bird of this kind in any known colledion, 
and no naturalift living can affirm that he has 
feen it. It would feem that all travellers, 
from their defire of fpeaking of this bird, have 
been fure to fee it, one at Peru, another in the 
South Sea, a third in Africa, and fo on. In 
Ihort, it has been met with every where : and 
BufFon, ingenious in finding funilltudes, dif- 
covers it in every very large bird mentioned 
by thefe men, notwithftanding the litde agree- 
ment betw een their defcriptions *. 
I too might eafily have fpoken of a con*» 
dor; for 1 have feen many large birds of 
prey, and among thofe which I have prefer- 
ved, there are more than one that I might 
ieafily have made pafs with the credulous for 
this carrler-off of flieep ; but, whatever fugh 
* i^ee Bulfon's Nat. Kill, of Birds, vol. I. article corjar. 
roman- 
