470 Letters , Extracts from Correspondence , Notices , fyc. 
tree, and the chick from another. There was, properly speaking, 
no nest ; but the egg was laid in the hollow of a tall old robles- 
oak, in a steep barranca, near the summit of one of the highest 
peaks, in the vicinity of the Tularcitos, near a place called 
Conejos. The birds are said, by some hunters, not to make 
their nests, but simply to lay their eggs on the ground, at the 
foot of old trees, or on the bare rocks of solitary peaks; others 
say they lay their eggs in old eagles* and buzzards* nests, while 
some affirm they make nests of sticks and moss; but the truth 
seems to be that they make no nests. The entire egg weighed 
10- ounces, and the contents 8f ounces. The colour of the 
egg-shell is what painters call “ dead dull white; ** the surface 
of the shell is not glossy, but slightly roughened, as in the Sea- 
pelicans (?) eggs, but not so much. Its figure is very nearly a 
perfect ellipse, being a model of form and shape in itself. It 
measured 4~ inches in length by 2f inches in breadth (diameter), 
and was inches in circumference round the middle. The 
egg-shell, after the contents were emptied (which were as clear, 
fine, bright, and inodorous as those of a hen*s egg, with a bright- 
yellow yolk), held as much as 9 fluidounces of water. Before 
the egg was opened, it sank on being placed in water—probably 
from its being very recently impregnated. Some of the old 
hunters say the egg is excellent eating; this one certainly had 
not the faintest musky odour, nor the slightest foreign smell. 
“ The young Condor mentioned above was from five to seven 
days old, and weighed 10 ounces avoirdupois. The whole skin 
of this chick was of an ochreous yellow, covered with a dull- 
white fine down ; the beak was coloured the same as in the old 
birds; the skin of the head and neck entirely bare of down, and 
of ochreous yellow; the colour of the legs of a deeper shade 
than that of the body : it had the musky smell of the old birds; 
the size and appearance of a two-months-old gosling; it had 
only been dead a couple of hours.** 
Mr. John Petherick, who has lately returned to this country 
for a short visit from Khartoum in the Soudan, where he fills 
the situation of H. B. M.*s Vice-Consul, has brought with him 
