File:Stories about birds of land and water (1874) (14750508302).jpg

Identifier: storiesaboutbird00kirb (find matches)
Title: Stories about birds of land and water
Year: 1874 (1870s)
Authors: Kirby, Mary, 1817-1893 Kirby, Elizabeth, 1823-1873
Subjects: Birds -- Juvenile literature
Publisher: Hartford (Conn.) : American Publishing Co.
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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eathe the rarefied air. At night the condor rests on the ledges of the rock ; and when the sungilds the mountain tops, and while it is yet dark in the vaHeys, he rouseshimself, flaps his wings, and peers over the ledge into the abyss below ; thenhe dives over, and seems as if sinking by the great weight of his body; butsoon he rises, and begins to move upwards in sweeping circles, until heascends often as much as four miles above the level of the sea. By-and-by he descends to the shore, and his loud screech is heard withthe dashing of the surf When hovering in the air he will spy out his prey inthe valley below. Sometimes it is a lamb, or a sheep, or a mule that hasfallen dead on the mountains. True to his nature as a vulture, he will not reject dead prey, but he isequally glad of it even when alive. His talons cannot clutch the prey as do those of the eagle, and he does THE CONDOR. 33 not attempt to bear it aloft in the same way as the royal bird ; he is obligedto ear it on the spot.
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THE CONDOR. He fixes it, as it were, to the ground with his claws, and then rends anddevours it with his beak,c 34 STOJilES ABOUT BIRDS. Like the rest of his race, he is a great glutton, and will feed until he isunable to rise again into the air. He may then be approached, but rather atyour peril, since he fights desperately, and is more difficult to kill than almostany creature in the world. We can tell you an anecdote about the condors power of life.A miner in Chili, a very strong man, once saw a condor enjoying hisfeast on the mountains. He had eaten so much that he could not fly, andthe man attacked and tried to kill him. The battle lasted a long time, andthe man was nearly exhausted. But in the end he thought he was the victor,and left the condor dead, as he imagined, on the field. Some of the feathershe carried off in triumph to show to his companions, and told them he hadnever fought so fierce a battle. The other miners went to look at the condor,when, to their surprise, he was

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