. A System of natural history : containing scientifci [sic] and popular descriptions of man, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles and insects . After feeding, it is seen fixed for hours in one unvaried posture, patientlywaiting until the work of digestion is completed, and the stimulus of hungeris renewed, to enable and to urge it to mount again into the upper regionsof the air, and fly abroad in quest of its necessary food. If violently dis-turbed after a full meal, it is incapable of flight until it has disgorged thecontents of its stomach; Lightened of which, and freed from their debilitat-
. A System of natural history : containing scientifci [sic] and popular descriptions of man, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles and insects . After feeding, it is seen fixed for hours in one unvaried posture, patientlywaiting until the work of digestion is completed, and the stimulus of hungeris renewed, to enable and to urge it to mount again into the upper regionsof the air, and fly abroad in quest of its necessary food. If violently dis-turbed after a full meal, it is incapable of flight until it has disgorged thecontents of its stomach; Lightened of which, and freed from their debilitat- 414 AVES—CONDOR. ing effects, it is immediately in a condition to soar to such a pitch as, inspite of its magnitude, to become invisible to human sight. In captivity, it appears to have no other desire, than that of obtaining itsregular supply of food. So long as that is afforded it, it manifests a perfectindifference to the circumstances in which it is placed. THE That the vulgar opinion of the immense size and ferocity of this, thelargest of the American birds of prey, should have extended its influence overthe minds even of scientific zoologists, can scarcely be regarded as affording 1 Cathartes gryphxis, Temminck. The ^enus Catharles has the beak lonsf, compress-ed, straight, bent towards the point; cere naked, covering more than half the beak; uppermandible turned towards the point; head oblong, naked, as well as the upper part of theneck; nostrils in the middle of the bill, near the ridge of the upper mandible, longitudi-nally cleft, broad, sometimes surmounted by fleshy appendages; legs with tarsus naked,more or less slender; middle toe long, and united to the exterior one at the base. A VES—CONDOR. 415 just grounds of surprise, when we consider how very imperfectly the condorwas known to naturalists down to the commencement of the present cen-tury. Twenty years ago, one or two mutilated specimens formed the onlymemorials of its existen
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