ip 
CONDOR. 
rtimwm 
They elevate themselves to such wonderful heights, that as they 
describe circle after circle, they gradually appear no larger than a 
swallow, next a mere speck is visible, then disappearing altogether 
from the limited power of human vision. Not, however, beyond 
their own, for as they hover over the country beneath, they can 
discover a carcass or carrion anywhere over a very wide district. 
In the East they are well known to follow the caravans; in Africa 
and South America they accompany and wait upon the hunter’s 
steps. If a beast is flayed and abandoned, calling to each other 
with shrill but resounding voice, they pour down upon the carcass, 
and in a short time, so dexterously do they manage the operation, 
nothing remains but the naked skeleton. If the skin should be 
left on the prey they discover, an entrance is soon made through 
the belly, by which they extract all but the bones, which are left 
so well covered by the skin as hardly to show that they have 
been at work there. Should a sickly ox or smaller animal be 
accidentally exposed defenceless, or from any cause unable to 
resist, the Vultures fall upon and devour him without mercy in 
the same manner. Thus in the mountainous districts of hot 
countries, in which they are very numerous, the hunter who wishes 
to secure his game dares not quit an animal he may have killed, for 
fear of its immediately becoming their prey. Le Vaillant, while 
in Africa, met with frequent losses through the rapacity of these 
parasites, which, immediately notified by the calling of the Crows, 
flocked around in multitudes, and speedily devoured large animals 
that he had killed, depriving him not only of his own meal, but 
of many a valuable specimen intended as a contribution to science. 
They may be frequently seen tearing a carcass in company with 
dogs or other ravenous quadrupeds, such associations producing 
no quarrel, however lean and hungry both may be. Harmony 
always subsists, so long as they have plenty, among creatures of 
dispositions so congenial. But the Eagle drives them to a distance 
a 
- — "-*4 V -- 
