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 60 THE CONDOR VOL. X too small, and he jumped across back of her. He seemed to get more friendly and the two sat there side by side, nibbling and caressing each other. We began crawling further up the ridge for a nearer picture. When we came in full sight of the birds, to my surprise they paid no attention to us. We stopped to take another picture and then climbed on up the steep rock with our cameras on our backs. Under cover of a small bush, I came to a point directly opposite the pair and only about forty feet away. Seeing the condors had no fear of me, I climbed straight out to the edge of the ledge ahd made some exposures while the mother sat preening her feathers. As neither bird seemed the least anxious as to our pres- ence, I began to enjoy the sensation of getting so close to these big birds in their wild mountain haunt. In a few minutes, the old male spread his wings and dropped off down the canyon. The next time I saw him, he was a mere speck, soaring high above the mountain. The mother kept turning her head and watching him all the while he was in the sky. Finally she too sailed off. When we climbed around to the nest, we found the condor nestling had grown from the size of the egg, or from about a double handful,. till he filled my hat. The down on his body had changed color from a pure white to a light gray. In- stead of the flesh color on his head and neck, it had changed to a dull yellow. He sat with his shoulders humped and his head hung as if in the last stage of dejection. The minute he saw me, he began crying in a note most peculiar for a bird, for it sounded exactly like the hoarse tooting of a small tin horn. How- ever, he only used this note a few times; then he began hissing. He showed his  resentment by drawing in his breath and letting it escape as if thru his nose. His feet were short and stubby, the WITI-I FE.TItERS RUFFLED UP AROUBID feet of a scavenger. What a deteriora- tion from the eagle! The claws were like those of a chicken rather than a bird of prey. The head, the bill and even the look in the eye were very different from the savage expression of the eagle even in his babyhood. When we picked the youngster up in our hands, he objected in a feeble way by trying to bite. Both the parents had left the vicinity, and we set him down at the entrance of his home to get some pictures. One of the parents was soaring high in the air, and he seemed to see his chick, for he began to descend rapidly. It looked as if he had something in his talons, but when he came nearer, we could see his legs and feet were hanging down as birds often do when about to alight. He seemed to do this as an aid in dropping suddenly. He swept in near us and lit on the old dead pine and was soon followed by his mate. The old birds looked so serious as they sat there staring at us and their young, that we hesitated, for we were not in a position for trouble there on the steep side of the mountain. But they had no intention of stopping us in our work, for they seemed to take the whole enterprise from the point of view of curiosity. There was something ominous about the condors and their nest cave. Never a sound came from the birds: they came and went like great black shadows. One