THE-C°nD?R 
.7I.XT).H«/IZJLT\e:- 05 
©ass fa\i> • oiu\rv, Beroev- 
Volume VIII November-Dee ember 1906) Number 6> 
Life History of the California Condor. Part I. — Finding a Condor’s Nest 7 
BY WILLIAM L. FINLRY 
PHOTOGRAPHS BY HERMAN T BOHEMAN 
I N October of 1895, a pair of California condors ( Gymnogyps ca/ifornianns ) were 
seen about one of the canyons of a certain range of mountains in Southern Cali- 
fornia. A search was made for the home of these birds at the time, but it 
could not be found. Every year since then, the pair of big birds have been seen 
about this locality, and many times efforts were made to find the nest, but each 
time the hunters returned unsuccessful. One year additional evidence was found 
in the bleached bones and scattered feathers hung in the bed of the canyon. This 
bird was in all probability the young of that year and was ruthlessly destroyed by 
the rifle of some wanton wanderer. Last year the pair of old condors and a young 
bird, hardly able to fly, were seen perched on the limbs of an old dead tree, and 
the place was marked as this seemed to be definite proof that the home was nearby. 
But even this apparently definite proof was far from revealing the condor's nest 
in the rocky crevices and cliffs of the mountain side. 
On March 10, 1906, I set out with two companions to make further search for 
the nest. The most striking feature of this region where the condor lived is the 
fact that one passes thru the green fields, orchards and vineyards; land that is 
under the highest cultivation, right up to the beginning of the mountains. At 
eight o’clock in the morning, we were in the midst of pleasant homes and gardens, 
and two hours later we seemed to be almost in a different world; it seemed miles 
out of civilization. We were in the roughest, wildest place without an indication 
of human habitation. Wild indeed, because this was the natural haunt of the 
California condor. The contrast is striking, for when we at last reached the knife- 
edge of one of the ridges, which broke abruptly off a hundred feet on one side and 
about three hundred on the other to the bed of the gulch, we had a view out the 
/ This article anil accompanying illustrations are protected by law. Copyright, igo6, by IV. L. Finley ami 
H . T. Bohlman. 
