In the month of October, the female of this species lays two white eggs slightly spotted with reddish. The young, on their exclusion, are covered with a white down, and their eyes are closed. The nest consists of an artless ex cavation in the ground, or of brushwood, on the borders of forests, without any regular distribution of materials.
V. iribu, d'Azara. Iribu Vulture. Head remarkably flat. This species, which the Guaranis, a tribe of South American Indians, call the Iribu, by way of eminence, has been inadvertently confounded with the preceding by some of our most celebrated ornithologists, and particu larly by Buffon and envier. The head and upper part of the neck are destitute of feathers, and much wrinkled. It is not found farther south than the parallel of Buenos Ayres; and for a considerable time after the conquest of America, it was unknown at Monte Video, whither it pass ed, in following the course of ships and boats.
During the greater part of the day, the iribu takes its station on trees or palings, to watch if any person stops for the purpose of easing nature, of throwing away the re lics of dried meat, or of killing a sheep. Several usually congregate on the same tree ; and as nobody harasses them, they live in tranquillity and safety. When assem bled on a mass of carrion, if any noise or object alarms them, they suddenly send forth their only cry, which is the sound of the syllable hoo, uttered with a very nasal in tonation. Whether alone or in company, they never at tack or molest any living creature; and, when several of them fall on a dead one, of small size, every one endea vours to tear off a bit, without quarrelling with his com petitors. They begin by devouring the eyes, then pro ceed to the tongue, and next to the intestines, when they can extract them by the vent. If the carcass has a very lf hard skin, and has not been touched by a dog, or some carnivorous animal, they abandon it ; but if they meet with any opening, they gnaw off the flesh to the very bones, leaving the skin spread over them. They some times follow the track of travellers, or boats, to pick up the offals and filth that are thrown out. On feeling them selves wounded, they disgorge the contents of their stom ach. The female constructs no regular nest, but deposits two white eggs in the hole of a rock or tree. The young, at birth, are covered with a white down.
V. gryphus, Lin. &c. Condor, Cundur, Cuntur, or Great Vulture of the Andes. Blackish spot on the wings, and ruff white. Besides the upper caruncle, which is large, and without tations, the male has another un der the beak; but the female is destitute of both. In the early stage of its existence, this bird is of a fulvous brown, and wants the ruff. There is reason to believe that, in mature age, it is liable to considerable varieties of colour, which may partly account for the discordant reports of different writers. This circumstance, however, will not explain the diversity of statements with respect to its di mensions and strength ; for its extent of wing has been reckoned from eight to eighteen feet; and, while Frezier asserts that it can carry off a sheep, or a boy of ten years of age, Marco Polo more undauntedly affirms, that it can raise an elephant high enough from the ground to kill it by letting it fall. Humbolt acquaints us, that he never
saw an individual of the species that measured more than three feet three inches in length, and eight feet nine inches from tip to tip of the wings : he admits, however, that it may sometimes exceed these dimensions, and that it may perhaps attain to eleven or twelve feet in extent of wing. The expanded wings of a preserved specimen, in the Le verian Museum, measured ten feet. When seated on the point of a rock, and viewed from below, its form being then contrasted with the clear sky above, appears consi derably larger than it really is, and thus may have given rise to the exaggerations of the early describers.
The condur preys both on living and dead animals, marking with wonderful sagacity its victim at a distance, and pouncing on it with astonishing boldness. A couple of them will lay hold on a heifer, and begin their work of destruction by picking out its eyes, and tearing out its tongue.
The usual residence of these birds is in lofty rocks, in the regions of the Andes, and just beneath the boundary of perpetual snow ; but they are capable of soaring beyond the reach of human ision. In the rainy or cold season, they sometimes repair to the sea-shore, especially towards the approach of evening, and return again to their moun tainous haunts in the morning, unless detained by some of the larger fishes that have been stranded by the tempest. In Peru and Quito, they are not unfrequently taken alive in the following manner : A cow or horse, which is of lit tle value in those countries, is killed and exposed ; and, in a short time, the condurs are seen suddenly to emerge from quarters where their existence was not even sus pected. They always begin with the eyes and tongue, and then proceed to devour the entrails, &c. When gorged, they are too heavy and indolent to fly ; and the Indians easily capture them in nooses. Sometimes, again, a person covers himself with the hide of a newly flayed animal, goes into the fields, and so counterfeits the gait of a quadruped, that one of these birds will frequently at tempt to attack him, whilst other persons, purposely con cealed, rush forward to his assistance, and at once over power and kill the assailant. Sometimes traps and springs are employed with success ; and sometimes (he cunning natives will work up a piece of viscous clay into the form of an infant, on which the condur darts with so much ye. hemenee, that his claws are entangled in the mass. When surprised by any of these modes, they are dull and timid for nearly an hour, and then become extremely ferocious : and, being very tenacious of life, they will for a long time survive such wounds as might be supposed to prove im mediately fatal. Such, too, are the fulness of their plum age, and the thickness of their skin, that a musket ball does not always dispatch them. They make their nests in the most inaccessible rocks ; and the female lays two white eggs, which are larger than those of the turkey hen.