Condor (Sarcoramphus Gryphus), a large bird of prey, belonging to the order raptores, family vulturidm. In the genus sarcoramphus, which includes two species, both peculiar to the American continent, the bill is moderate, covered for about one third of its length with a soft cere, and arched to its strong and sharp tip; the nostrils are large and exposed in the middle of the cere, and in the male furnished with a caruncle; the wings are long and pointed, with the third and fourth quills equal and the longest; the tail is moderate and even at the end; the tarsi are plumed below the knee, and covered with small reticulated scales; the toes are moderate and united by a slight membrane; the hind toe is the shortest and is weak; the claws are strong and slightly curved; the head, neck, and front of the breast are bare of feathers, and covered with a hard, dry, and wrinkled skin, with a few short, stiff, and darkcolored hairs. On the summit of the head, in the male only, is a fleshy or cartilaginous crest, extending over the posterior part of the beak, and sloped anteriorly so as not to cover the nostrils; this crest, unlike that of the gallinaceous birds, is hard, with very few vessels, and incapable of inflation. The head is flat; the beak whitish at the tip, and brownish at the base.

The rough skin of the head and neck is formed into folds, somewhat as in the turkey, which may be swelled out at pleasure; these wrinkles arise from the habit of contracting its neck within the collar. The naked neck is separated from the feathered body by a collar of fine and white silken down; this collar is found in the adults of both sexes. The general color of the plumage is brownish black; the primaries are black; the secondaries are nearly half white, so that, in the males especially, the wing is adorned with a white spot, which has led some naturalists into the erroneous belief that the back is white, from the appearance of this color when the bird is hovering below the observer. The feathers are not so thick on the under surface of the body, but those of the thighs are long. The only noise it makes is a hiss like that of a goose. The most extravagant ideas prevailed concerning the size of the condor until the visit of Humboldt to South America. The average length of this bird, from the point of the beak to the end of the tail, is not more than 3 1/2 ft., and the spread of the wings from 9 to 10 ft.; some individuals, from favorable circumstances, may attain an extent of wings of 12 or 13 ft.

A full-grown male from the most celebrated locality on the Andes, now in Vas-sar college, has a stretch of 9 ft. Humboldt never found one to measure over 9 ft., and the largest specimen seen by Darwin was 8 1/2 ft. from tip to tip. An old male in the zoological gardens of London measures 11 ft. The exaggerated accounts of its size have doubtless originated from the difficulty of accurate observation in the solitary and almost inaccessible retreats which the condor prefers; it is most frequently seen either perched upon a lofty mountain peak, or soaring at an immense height. With this idea of its gigantic size, it is natural that travellers should believe and report tales of its strength and ferocity in attacking and carrying off man and large animals. Its beak and claws are very strong, but are employed in tearing dead rather than living animals. Humboldt could not ascertain that these birds had ever carried off a child, and believed that the reports of their killing young persons are as fabulous as those concerning the great noise made in their flight. Still, with their great strength, there is no doubt that condors might destroy children and even man; they have been seen to attack young bulls, and tear out their tongue and eyes.

Nevertheless, the natives of the Andes uniformly assert that they are not dangerous to man, and even leave their young children asleep in the open air without fear of their being carried off. The true condor belongs exclusively to the chain of the Andes, from the straits of Magellan to a few degrees north of the equator. Condors generally live in pairs, in the most elevated and solitary localities; from these they descend into the valleys and plains in search of food, generally the carcasses of large animals. Their ordinary habitat is between the altitudes of 10,000 and 16,000 ft. The largest seem to make their home around the volcano of Cayambe, which stands exactly on the equator. In the rainy season they frequently descend to the coast, where they may be seen roosting on trees. They are most commonly seen around vertical cliffs, where their nests are, and where cattle are most likely to fall. Great numbers frequent Antisana, where there is an extensive cattle estate. When gorged with food, they retire to their ledges to digest it. As summer approaches, they seek the most inaccessible crags to rear their young; the female makes no nest, but deposits two white eggs, about four inches long, upon the bare rock, placing a few sticks around them.

Incubation occupies about seven weeks, ending in April or May. The young are scarcely covered with a dirty-white down, and they are not able to fly for nearly two years. They are as downy as goslings until they nearly equal in size a full-grown bird. The white frill at the base of the neck, and the white feathers in the wings, do not appear until the second plumage, or until after the first general moulting, during which time they lie in the caves and are fed by their elders for at least six months. Previous to this the frill is of a deep gray color and the wing feathers brown. The claws of the condor are nearly straight, and it prefers alighting on the ground to perching in trees. They often hunt in pairs, and two will not hesitate to attack the largest animals, pursuing them, and tearing them with beak and talons until they expire. There is no doubt that the condor detects its prey almost entirely by the sense of vision; when stimulated by hunger, it flies to a great height for the purpose of taking in at a glance a vast extent of country. Thus, though a carrion bird, it breathes the purest air, spending much of its time at a height of three miles above the sea.

Humboldt saw one fly over Chimborazo, and Orton says he has seen them sailing 1,000 ft. above the crater of Pichincha. It is often seen singly soaring at a great height in vast circles; its flight is slow and majestic; its head is constantly in motion, as if in search of food below; its mouth is kept open and its tail spread. From its large and exposed nostrils, as compared with the smaller and covered ones of the birds preying exclusively on living animals, it is possible that the condor is to some extent guided to its favorite food by the sense of smell; but, from the careful experiments of Audubon with other species of vulture, it is most likely, as he suggests, that the large openings of the nostrils are for the purpose of permitting the bird to clear out this avenue of respiration while its beak is plunged in the filthy matters which it devours. From the inactivity of the condor when gorged with food has arisen the favorite native method of taking it alive. A horse or cow being killed, the condors soon make their appearance and attack the carcass, beginning with the eyes and tongue, their favorite morsels; in order to arrive the quickest at the intestines of the animal, they direct their principal efforts to the anus; when satiated and unable to mount, the Indians pursue and capture them with ease.

To rise from the ground it must run for some distance; then it flaps its wings three or four times, and ascends at a low angle till it reaches a considerable elevation, when it seems to make a few leisurely strokes, as if to ease its wings, after which it literally sails upon the air. In walking, the wings trail on the ground, and the head takes a crouching position; it has a very awkward, almost painful gait. From its inability to rise without running, a narrow pen is sufficient to imprison it. In captivity it will eat almost anything but pork and cooked meat; a single condor of moderate size has been known to eat in one week a calf, a sheep, and a dog. In confinement they are mischievous and ferocious; they are very hard to kill, from the difficulty of penetrating their thick plumage, and they appear to have more tenacity of life than any other birds of prey. - The second species of the genus, the king vulture (S. papa), called condor in Mexico and Central America, and intimately connected with the mythology of the Aztecs, is about as large as a goose, and frequents more especially the plains of the Pacific coasts of America from 32° S. to 30° N.; but it is most numerous in the torrid zone.

The skin of the head and neck is of a bright red color, bare of feathers, wrinkled, with a few hairs on the occiput, and a frill of plumes below the naked portion of the neck large enough to conceal a great part of the head when the bird draws itself into its favorite contracted, half-inclined position. Between the nostrils rises a soft crest, indented like the comb of a cock, and terminating in wart-like protuberances. The general color of the plumage is white, whence the Spaniards of Paraguay called it the white crow; the wing coverts, wings, tail, a part of the back, the bill, and the tarsi are black; in some specimens the naked skin of the head and neck is variegated with tints of orange, purple, and red. The immature birds have much more black in their plumage. The king vulture resembles the condor in its habits; it is a shy bird, unless pressed by hunger and in the vicinity, of carrion; it is said to build its nest in a hollow tree, and to deposit two eggs. It received the name of king vulture, because from its superior size and strength it readily put to flight the carrion crows and turkey buzzards when congregated about a carcass upon which it desired to feed.

Condor (Sarcoramphus gryphus).