goslings or cygnets; and
even at two years of age their colour is not black and white, but a
dirty, brownish black.

"The full-grown condor usually measures about eight feet from tip to tip
of his wings; but there can be no question that specimens exist, and
have been seen by truthful travellers, that measured fourteen feet and
some inches!

"The condor, like other vultures, feeds principally upon carrion; but,
when pressed with hunger, he will kill sheep, lambs, vicunas, young
lamas, deer, and other animals. The larger kinds he can master, by
attacking their eyes with his powerful beak--which is his principal
weapon. That he can kill boys of sixteen years old, as Garcilaso de la
Vega asserts, is, like many other statements of that celebrated author,
simply untrue; but that he frequently attacks, and, according to the
Indians, sometimes _puts to death_ little children, is probable enough.
If he can kill full-grown sheep or vicunas, there is nothing remarkable
about his doing the same for a child five or six years of age; and,
indeed, it is certain that such instances have occurred.

"Almost any eagles can do as much, and would, provided they were hungry,
and children were left exposed in the neighbourhood of their haunts.
The condor, however, is one of the most ravenous of his species. One in
a state of captivity has been known to eat eighteen pounds of flesh in a
single day! But that this bird can raise into the air with his claws,
and carry off large animals, such as deer and sheep, as asserted by
Acosta, Desmarchais, and other French and Spanish writers, is altogether
fabulous.

"The condor, unlike the vultures of most countries, is not under the
protection of the law. His destructive habits among the lambs, and
young lamas and alpacas, render him an object to be persecuted rather
than protected. He is, therefore, either killed or captured, whenever
an opportunity offers. There can be but little use made either of his
flesh or his feathers; but as he is an object of curiosity, he is often
kept as a pet about the houses of the Chilians and Peruvians. Live ones
are frequently to be seen in the markets of Valparaiso, and other South
American cities.

"The natives who hunt the condor have various ways of capturing him.
Sometimes they lie in wait near a carcass, and shoot the bird when it
alights; but it is very difficult to kill them in this way, on account
of their strong thick feathers, as well as the te