Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/222

 218 CONDOR CONDORCET 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 stimu- lated 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 ke 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 nos- trils, as compared with the smaller and cov- ered 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 ex- periments 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 appear- ance 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 eleva- tion, 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 fero- cious; 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 speci- mens the naked skin of the head and neck is variegated with tints pf orange, purple, and red. The immature birds have much more black in their plumage. The king vulture re- sembles 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. ONDORCET, Marie Jean Antoine Mcolas Caritat, marquis de, a French savant, born at Ribemont, near St. Quentin, Sept. 17, 1743, died at Bourg- la-Reine, March 28, 1794. He received his education at the college de Navarre, and be- ing introduced at the age of 19 to the court of Louis XV., his strict morality and earnest love of science kept him pure from the per- nicious influences of that dangerous region. His essay Sur le calcul integral and some similar writings were rewarded by his elec- tion, at the age of 26, to the academy of sci ences, of which in 1777 he was elected secre- tary. His ingenuity in handling the most dif- ficult mathematical problems was equalled by his versatility. In 1777 a premium was award- ed to him by the Berlin academy of science for his theory of comets. An intimate friend of Turgot, Condorcet made himself familiar with the systems of political economy ; at the same time he became an active contributor to the