4 
CONDOR. 
wondrous Condor. They had not, as we have, the means of 
personally ascertaining the sober truth. But it is almost incredi¬ 
ble, and remarkably illustrates the force of preconceived opinions, 
that in the year 1830, a traveller could be found with assurance 
enough to impose upon us, and journals, even of respectable 
standing, to copy as positive and authentic, a description of a 
Condor of moderate size, just killed, and actually lying before the 
narrator, so large that a single quill-feather was twenty good 
paces long! This indeed might have lifted an Elephant, and it 
is quite unfortunate that Peru and Chili should no longer produce 
them for prey for such a bird, and that the Mastodon is now 
extinct. So much for human credulity, which is often exercised 
upon more serious occasions, with equal impudence and much 
worse results. 
As in so many other instances of power based upon prejudice, 
or great reputation unjustly usurped, a near and close examination 
has shown the falsity of these pretensions. The wonderful Condor 
now proves to be nothing more than a rather large Vulture. The 
same has happened, as Humboldt observes, with its countrymen, 
the gigantic Patagonians, who are found at last not to exceed the 
stature of ordinary men. 
Notwithstanding the faithful accounts of a few of the older 
authors, the true history of the Condor had remained involved in 
the obscurity created by mingling it with so many childish tales, 
when the celebrated Humboldt, studying it living with the sober 
eye of truth and philosophy, furnished a correct description, a 
good drawing, and an excellent memoir upon it. Since that time 
several stuffed as well as living specimens have reached the 
menageries and museums of the United States and Europe, which 
with the three plates published by Temminck, have rendered it 
familiar to all. It is but just, however, to mention that Latham 
had, long before Humboldt, given in his second Supplement a 
