(GREAT CONDOR.)
+Sarcorhamphus gryphus+, _Darwin, Zool. Beagle_, iii. p. 1 (Rio
Negro); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 123; _Burm. La-Plata Reise_,
ii. p. 433 (Cordova); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 40 (Chupat), et
1878, p. 398 (Central Patagonia).
_Description._--General plumage glossy black; greater wing-coverts
margined with ashy; neck-ruff white; head, neck, and centre of chest
bare; head, with a large caruncle, black; throat wattled; chest with
a pendent wattle: whole length 38·0 inches, wing 29·0, tail 14·0.
_Female_ similar, but without the wattles on the head and neck.
_Hab._ Andes of South America, and adjacent ranges in La Plata.
Dr. Burmeister tells us that he has seen the Condor in the Sierras of
Cordova and Aconquija, though it is more prevalent in the districts of
the Western Cordillera.
In the territory of Chupat, Durnford met with it at Ninfas Point
in November, and tells us that when the colonists are hunting in
the neighbourhood of the sea-coast the Condor is the first of the
bird-scavengers to make its appearance after game has been killed.
During his subsequent excursion to the Sengel river in the interior, the
Condor was commonly observed throughout the journey wherever the rocks
were high and steep. Several pairs were noticed nesting on Nov. 16th,
but the nests could not be reached.
My own experience of the Condor is restricted in seeing one individual,
flying above the sea-shore, south of the Rio Negro.
Order VIII. STEGANOPODES.
Fam. XXXIV. PHALACROCORACIDÆ, or CORMORANTS.
The only family of the Steganopodes that can at present be inserted in
the Argentine list is that of the Cormorants, though doubtless other
forms of this Order (_Sula_, _Phaethon_, and _Fregata_) will be
hereafter found to occur on the coast with more or less frequency.
One Cormorant only has yet been positively determined as occurring
within the Argentina area.