. The birds of California : a complete, scientific and popular account of the 580 species and subspecies of birds found in the state. Birds; Birds. The California Condor neither accident nor foe; but with wings set rigidly, so far as support is concerned, he quarters back and forth across the face of the cliff with never a flicker of propulsive effort, or else rises in great circles to whatever realm he pleases of upper air. If the hunting ground be a distant one, the Condor will rise to a con- siderable height,—say 2000 or 3000 feet above the mountain top; and then, with set wings, glide dire
. The birds of California : a complete, scientific and popular account of the 580 species and subspecies of birds found in the state. Birds; Birds. The California Condor neither accident nor foe; but with wings set rigidly, so far as support is concerned, he quarters back and forth across the face of the cliff with never a flicker of propulsive effort, or else rises in great circles to whatever realm he pleases of upper air. If the hunting ground be a distant one, the Condor will rise to a con- siderable height,—say 2000 or 3000 feet above the mountain top; and then, with set wings, glide directly forward down a slope with an incredibly low gradient, depending, of course, upon the direction and velocity of the wind, and so swiftly that he will pass out of range of a good field telescope within ten minutes. There is no more majestic spectacle in the bird world than that afforded by this Condor glide. It is as rigid, as inexorable, as funda- mental as the law of gravitation itself. Once, and only once in a residence of twelve years, have we seen a Condor at Los Colibris. It was flying due south, and since it was at an eleva- tion of two or three thousand feet, it should have made Santa Cruz Island if the wind held, without shifting a feather. Such marvelous specialization, however, carries with it certain penalties. Just because the sails of this bird are so accurately trimmed for the utilization of light breezes, the craft itself is unable to make headway against a strong wind. Not even by flapping can the Condor negotiate a breeze above a certain intensity. What the bird does in such an emergency is best told by Brown, who was once present on a quite critical occasion. Telescope in hand, the bird-watcher was resting upon a certain low crest about a mile northeast of the Condor cliffs, which here furnish a portion of the main crest of the San Juan range. Presently he descried four Condors approaching from the far northeast, but before they came up a smart breeze sp
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1923
