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Volume 3 (1858-1859) (592 pages)
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Page: of 592
540° HUTCHING’S CALIFORNIA MAGAZINE.
from any other country. Any one, with
a fully identified and arranged series of
California birds’ eggs, could get a handsome figure for the set in New York, Boston, Paris, or London. Only think, there
are schools of philosophers who make a
study of birds’ eges; they call it Oology,
and threaten to make very big books out
of it.
The young Condor mentioned above is
from five to seven days old, and weighed
ten ounces. [The weights used in this
paper are ayordupois.]. The whole skin
of this chick is of an ochrous yellow, and
covered with a dull white, fine down;
the beak was colored, the same as in the
old birds—the skin of the head and neck
entirely bare of down, and of ochrous
yellow—the color of the legs of a deeper
shade than that of the body; it had the
musky smell of the old birds; the size
and appearance similar to that of a twomonth old goslin; it had only been dead
a couple of hours.
The young is a male; the craw or dilatation of the gullet, filled with some kind
of comminuted meat. The stomach was
filled with undigested fibres of oat-straw,
oat grains, pieces of acorns, excrement
of mice or squirrels, small pieces of stones;
wood and earth. It is not known how
the parent bird feeds the young.
The egg is a little smaller at one end
than the other—in fine, an egg of elegant
shape and form. The egg shell is about
three times the thickness of a turkey’s
egg.
My old friend, Capt. John B. R. Cooper,
who knew David Douglass, when he was
in California, in 1829-30, says that Douglass searched in vain for the eggs of the
Condor, in all his travels in California.
We are thus particular, in describing
this egg and the young, as they are of
great interest among naturalists, from not
having been described before, at least so
far as we can ascertain from the latest
authorities in reach, all of which are particularly directed to California subjects.
The above detailed description is from
nature, at any rate; if it has been noted
from the same mirror heretofore, it has
not come under our cognizance.
Auxr. S. Tayog.
Monterey, 28th April, 1859.
THE GREAT CONDOR OF CALIFORNIA.*
BY ALEXANDER 8S. TAYLOR.
The following notes of Nov. 1854, in the
California Farmer, have been revised and
corrected to the date of March, 1859, on
the great Condor of Northwest America:
A fine specimen of this bird was killed
on the beach at Monterey, a few days ago.
As it has never been described before (to
our knowledge) with accuracy, and aa
the scientific books of Natural History
are as unsatisfactory and incomplete as
the tales of peripatetic hunters, we shall
take Mother Nature as she shows herself
in this huge, feathery embodiment of creation, as our guide and pattern.
An imperfect description was given by
us of this bird in the S. F. Herald, of
December 12, 52. The present specimen
being killed near our house, we are enabled, with a more extended knowledge of
its habits, to give a careful and detailed
history of the creature.
The bird before us is a male, and weighed when killed, 20 Ibs. avoirdupois. The
following are its dimensions and proportions: From beak to the end of tailfeathers, 4 fect 6 inches; from tip to tip of .
wing, stretched out, 8 feet 4 inches ; one
wing, 3 feet 3 inches; tail feathers, 12
in number and 15 inches long; from
ruffle on the neck to vent, 2 feet 9 inches.
It has 32 brachial feathers on each wing ;
the 5 long outer wing feathers measure 2
feet 5 inches each; its breadth across the
breast bone is 8 inches; under the wings
it has a long triangular layer of white
*Published simultaneously in the Cal. Farmer.