The Press., 1912-12-11
OUR BIG COND0RS
In Weight and Spread of Wing They Surpass All Other Birds.
MYSTERY IN THEIR FLIGHTS.
With Fixed Ortspread Wings These Wonderful Birds Will Sweep Upward and Onward Through the Air With au+ the Movement of a Feather.


 Wonderful Birds Will Sweep Upward
 and Onward Through the Air With
 out the Movement of Feather. It is not commonly known that we have condor in the United States, |, vet there is one on the Pacific coast that in weight and spread of wing sur passes all M her birds. From tip to l7tip of wing it measures more than ten feet. tconsidera bly, more than the con dor. 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 long, narrow strip of almost pure: white running the whole length of the wing and widening near the body. It has no ruff round the neck, but fringe of long, narrow black feathers on the back of the neck gives it savage appearance. 1t nests among the rocks in lofty cliffs, laying several white eggs much larger than thoSe of the turkey or goose. From 1S1J to 1885 condOrs were SO abun' lant in southern California that used
 
 they are found only in the wilder noun tuinS Their eggs bring $1Oo each in the larger museums of the country.
 If an animal is sick or disab bled the ..ondor: rarely hesitates to, attack it, and it's fate is soon sealed fit is not strong enough to defend itself or. es- cape it's enemy. :.
 Like the condor of the Andes. that ,1f California will so gorge itself with food at times that it can be lasSOed fn the quick dasE ofa good horse. friend of mine at San Jacinto had one that had been chught in. that way. ! But. although he had thousands of sheep and cattle, he had to give the bird away because he could not afford to feed it. It would eat a whole sheep at meal and then look hungry and sad. as if it were badly treated. | Once clear of the ground, with wings 0utspre;td. the condor has no trouble in bearing away into the clouds din ner that will last week or two. ; F. Standing on the ground at distance %this great bird looks much like a big black Newfoundland 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 speck of down in the remotest blue; the frigate bird. whose wing seems never made to fold, even the albatross, are all clumsy and mon0tonOls compared with the condor. It travels in Il series of winding lines, ill whis.I. symmetry and grace always govern thp boldeSt sweeps or the high est bursts of speed.
 Dozens of times 1 have laid among the ro; ks and had the condor come so near that 1 could plainly see the spar ke of the brown eye in the vivid red of the bare head. and with the strong glass that always carried in hunting deer l have brought the bird much nearer. Yet never could detect the slightest motion of wing or feNthers beyond lazy lap or two at intervals of several minutes or a simple inhend- ing of the tips of the wings, as if feel ing 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 wonderful when the con uOI SCIS lIASoS d11O oIOO W lSS across q strong breeze without any de scent, yet without falling backward and still more so to see the great bird return with q swing of half mile or more, arriving hundreds of feet above the point of starting and perhaps hun dreds of yards ahead of it.
 When have been well hidden among the rocks have seen a condor within few yards hanging on the air for 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 summer cloud. Then suddenly the bird has turned half over and cleft the air with sharp hiss of wing feathers, for which there was not the slightest mo- tion of ;t wing to account. And all this time the condor has been rising instead of falling. and have. yainly' watched the fringed tips of the great wings for the slightest sign ofsmotion.-T. s. Van Dyke in Youths Companion.