ts alarmingly small range, the insignificant number of individuals now
living, the openness of the species to attack, and the danger of its
extinction by poison. Originally this remarkable bird,--the largest
North American bird of prey,--ranged as far northward as the Columbia
River, and southward for an unknown distance. Now its range is reduced
to seven counties in southern California, although it is said to extend
from Monterey Bay to Lower California, and eastward to Arizona.

Regarding the present status and the future of this bird, I have been
greatly disturbed in mind. When a unique and zoologically important
species becomes reduced in its geographic range to a small section of a
single state, it seems to me quite time for alarm. For some time I have
counted this bird as one of those threatened with early extermination,
and as I think with good reason. In view of the swift calamities that
now seem able to fall on species like thunderbolts out of clear skies,
and wipe them off the earth even before we know that such a fate is
impending, no species of seven-county distribution is safe. Any species
that is limited to a few counties of a single state is liable to be
wiped out in five years, by poison, or traps, or lack of food.

[Illustration: CALIFORNIA CONDOR
Now Living in the New York Zoological Park.]

On order to obtain the best and also the most conservative information
regarding this species, I appealed to the Curator of the Museum of
Vertebrate Zoology, of the University of California. Although written in
the mountain wilds, I promptly received the valuable contribution that
appears below. As a clear, precise and conservative survey of an
important species, it is really a model document.

* * * * *

THE STATUS OF THE CALIFORNIA CONDOR IN 1912 _By Joseph Grinnell_

"To my knowledge, the California Condor has been definitely observed
within the past five years in the following California counties: Los
Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Kern, and
Tulare. In parts of Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Kern
counties the species is still fairly common, for a large bird, probably
equal in numbers to the golden eagle in those regions that are suited to
it. By suitable country I mean cattle-raising, mountainous territory,
of which there are still vast areas, and which are not likely to be put
to any other use for a very long time, if ever, on ac