38 
BIRDS OF PREY. 
young for the space of a year. The young Condor has 
no feathers. His body, for several months, is covered 
only with a very fine down or whitish frizzled hair, which 
resembles that of young owls. This down disfigures the 
young bird so much, that in this state it appears almost 
as large as an adult. 
The Condor at the end of the second year changes from black to 
blackish brown. The female as well as the male, at this age, ac- 
quires the white color at the base of the naked neck, consisting of 
longer feathers than those on the rest of the body. The bill is 
straight, but strongly hooked at the point ; the lower mandible 
considerably shorter than the upper ; the plumage is white in front, 
everywhere else of a brownish grey. The head and neck are naked, 
and covered with a hard, dry, and wrinkled skin of a reddish color, 
and scattered over with short, rigid, brown, or blackish hairs. The 
cranium is remarkably flattened, as in most other ferocious animals. 
The fleshy, or almost cartilaginous crest, peculiar to the male, occu- 
pies the summit of the head, and is about one fourth the length of the 
bill : it is of an oblong figure, and thin and wrinkled. The skin of 
the head in the male forms, behind the eye, folds or rugosities, and 
beard-like tufts, which descend towards the neck, and there unite 
into a loose membrane, which the animal has the power of rendering 
more or less visible, and swelling out at pleasure, somewhat after 
the manner of the Turkey. The ear is large, and hidden under a 
membranous fold. The eye is remarkably elongated, farther remov- 
ed from the bill than in the eagles, very lively, and of a purple 
color ; the whole neck is covered with parallel wrinkles, but the 
skin is not so loose as that which covers the throat. The wrinkles 
are placed longitudinally, and originate in the habit this Vulture has 
of drawing in its neck, and hiding it in the collar, which serves it 
as a hood. This collar, formed of silky down, is common to the 
adult of both sexes ; it is a white band which separates the naked 
part of the neck from the rest of the body covered with true 
feathers. The back, the wings, and the tail are of a greyish black. 
The feathers of the Condor are sometimes of a brilliant black ; 
but most frequently the black borders on grey. The primary quill 
feathers of the wing are black, and the secondaries are both in 
the male and female exteriorly edged with white. In the female, 
the wing coverts are of a greyish-black, but the points, and even 
