WEIGHT OF CONDOR 
into ; but they exist, and are of importance. Anatomy 
forbids us to place the American vultures quite close 
to the accipitrine scavengers of the Old World. 
The condor with its black plumage, except on the 
wings where it is grey, and the tips of the big wing 
feathers which are white, the white ruff like a lady’s 
feather boa round its neck, its naked throat and the 
wattle which rises on the head of the cock bird, is one 
of the largest of flying fowls : it has an expanse of wing 
which is hardly surpassed in the “aery caravan.” A 
specimen in the Zoo hada stretch of wing of 7 feet 
6 inches, and the bird is said to reach so great aspan 
asgfeet. But even thenit is equalled by the Marabou 
stork, which expands its wings to precisely the same 
length, at any rate so far as concerned a large individual 
at the Zoo. The condor, which measured seven feet and 
a half, hada body weight of 131 Ib. goz. But a rela- 
tionship between weight and expanse of wing is not 
by any means always accurate in the bird tribe. A 
lammergeier, for example, of 10 Ib. in weight had a 
wing expanse of 8 feet 8 inches. Nevertheless, there 
is no doubt about the fact that the condor is a powerful 
flyer, and its soaring capacity is a matter of universal 
knowledge. It is precisely “‘ every schoolboy ”’ who 
does know this fact, for the condor figures largely in 
tales of adventure. That it will attack persons, or at 
least threaten to do so, seems to be a fact. When thus 
attacking it has the cunning to take advantage of sun- 
light, and only to attack in brilliant weather, when it can 
swoop down with its back to the sun, whose rays dazzle 
the swooped-upon one. It delights in the fastnesses 
of the Andes of Peru, and prefers to live at an altitude 
of from 9 to 16,000 feet. The “scenting’’ of prey by 
this and other vultures is a matter of common notoriety ; 
but the causes of such keenness are not thoroughly 
agreed upon. It seems to be useless to attribute the 
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