Nov. 23, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
647 
THE NORTHERN CONDOR. 
It is not commonly known that we have 
a condor in the United States, yet there is one 
on the Pacific Coast that in weight and spread 
■ of wing surpasses all other birds. From tip to 
tip of wing it measures more than ten feet, 
considerably more than the condor of the Andes 
and about a yard more than the largest eagle 
or swan. 
This condor is black, tinged with brown, 
except under the wings, where there is a long 
narrow strip of almost pure white running the 
whole length of the wing and widening near 
■ the body. It has no ruff around the neck, but 
a fringe of long narrow black feathers on the 
back of the neck gives it a savage appearance. 
It nests among the rocks in lofty cliffs, laying 
several white eggs much larger than those of 
the turkey or goose. From 1875 to 1885 con¬ 
dors were so abundant in Southern California 
that I used to see them almost every day, but 
now they are found only in the wilder moun¬ 
tains. Their eggs bring $100 each in the larger 
museums of the country. 
If an animal is sick or disabled the condor 
rarely hesitates to attack it, and its fate is soon 
sealed if it is not strong enough to defend it¬ 
self or escape its enemy. 
Like the condor of the Andes, that of Cali¬ 
fornia will so gorge itself with food at times 
that it can be lassoed in the quick dash of a 
good horse. A friend of mine at San Jacinto 
had one that had been caught in that way. But, 
although he had thousands of sheep and cattle, 
he had to give the bird away, because he could 
rot afford to feed it. It would eat a whole 
sheep at a meal and then look hungry and sad, 
as if it were badly treated. 
Once clear of the grounds with wings out¬ 
spread. the condor has no trouble in bearing 
away into the clouds a dinner that will last a 
week or two. 
Standing on the ground at a distance, this 
great bird looks much like a big black New¬ 
foundland dog sitting up for a cracker; but in 
the air it surpasses in grace and variety of 
action every other wanderer of the skies. The 
whooping crane that floats like a speck of 
down in the remotest blue; the frigate bird, 
whose wing'seems never made to fold, even the 
albatross, are all clumsy and monotonous com¬ 
pared with the condor. It travels in a series 
of winding lines, in which symmetry and grace 
always govern the boldest sweeps of the highest 
bursts of speed. 
Dozens of times I have laid among the 
rocks and had the condor come so near that 
I could plainly see the sparkle of the brown 
eyes in the vivid red of the bare head, and with 
the strong glass that I always carried in hunt¬ 
ing deer I have brought the bird much nearer. 
Yet never could I detect the slightest motion 
of wing or feather beyond a lazy flap or two at 
intervals of several minutes or a simple inbend¬ 
ing of the tips of the wings as if feeling the 
breeze to be sure it was there. And the bird 
often floats an hour or more without even this 
slight motion. 
It is quite as wonderful when the condor 
sets its wings and slides sideways across a 
strong breeze, without any descent yet without 
falling backward, and still more so to see the 
great bird return with a swing of half a mile 
or more, arriving hundreds of feet above the 
point of starting and perhaps hundreds of yards 
ahead of it. 
When I have been well hidden among the 
rocks I have seen a condor within a few yards 
hanging on the air from many seconds at a 
time, not like the hawk, balancing itself to fall 
upon some bird below, but seeming to sleep 
there as peacefully and quietly as a summer 
cloud. Then suddenly the bird has turned half 
over and cleft the air with a sharp hiss of wing 
feathers, for which there was not the slightest 
motion of a wing to account. And all this 
time the condor has _ been rising instead of 
falling, and I have vainly watched the fringed 
tips of the great wings for the slightest sign of 
motion.—Youth’s Companion. 
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