Condor
a large vulture-like bird of prey, inhabiting the Andean region of South America. It is the largest bird that flies. It measures over three feet from the tip of its bill to the end of its tail, and has a total wing expanse of nine or, in unusual specimens, fourteen feet. Its general color is a grayish black, terminating in a white, fluffy, silky collar or ruff, into which the bird withdraws its wrinkled head and neck for warmth and protection. The condor nests on the most inaccessible cliffs, laying two white eggs, four inches in length. The condor requires seven weeks to hatch its eggs, and the young must be fed for a whole year before they are able to fly. The condor soars at enormous altitudes from 10,000 to 15,000 feet above the sea. It has a wonderful eye, and a keen sense of smell. The name condor is, in fact, derived from an old Indian word signifying a good smeller. Condors are usually seen in groups of three or four; never in large companies.
If the truth must be told, this bird, so noble in flight, is a greedy, repulsive creature close at hand. It descends to the plains upon the slightest promise of carrion. Dead animals of every sort are its choicest food. Condors gather in disgusting groups around a dead horse or cow, and tear the carcass, devouring such enormous quantities that they are at first unable to fly, and are killed by the Indians with clubs and stones. The condor is not especially courageous. It attacks little alpacas, wounded animals, or sick cattle, first tearing out the eyes and the tongue. Its nature seems to be very much like that of the alpine lammergeir to which, indeed, it is closely related.
The California condor, or vulture, is almost as large. It formerly ranged from British Columbia southward, but is no longer seen north of Southern California. The eggs, now to be found only in the high coast Sierras, are quoted by collectors at $225 a nest.
I was told by the country people in Chile that the condor makes no sort of nest, but in the months of November and December lays two large white eggs on a shelf of bare rock. It is said that the young condors cannot fly for an entire year; and long after they are able they continue to roost by night, and hunt by day with their parents. The old birds generally live in pairs; but among the inland basaltic cliffs I found a spot where scores must usually haunt. On coming to the brow of the precipice, it was a grand spectacle to see twenty or thirty of these great birds start heavily from their resting-place and wheel away in majestic circles.-Darwin.