York, where he arrived at the end of July, 1800, and soon reached Philadelphia, laden with a light cargo of subscribers, and a much more valuable one of ornithological specimens.

14. Immediately on his return to Philadelphia he applied himself with fresh enthusiasm to his task, and by August had completed the eighth volume. The confinement and intense application which this demanded were more than his frame could sustain. He was seized with a fatal illness and died on the 23d of August, 1813, in the forty-seventh year of his age.

15. That the industry of Wilson was equal to his natural talents is proved by the fact that in little more than seven years, "without patron, fortune, or recompense," he accomplished more than the combined body of European naturalists had achieved in a century. We need no further evidence of his unparalleled industry than the fact that of two hundred and seventy-five specimens which were figured and described in his "American Ornithology," fifty-six species had not been taken notice of by any former naturalist.

1. THE Condor of the Andes has been the subject of greatly exaggerated reports as to its dimensions. When it was first discovered by the Spanish conquerors of America,

it was compared to the roc of Arabian fable, and by some even considered to be the identical bird, " which is able to truss an elephant." One writer states that some of those killed by the Spaniards measured fifteen or sixteen feet from tip to tip of the extended wings. He adds that two will attack a bull and devour it, and that single individuals will slay boys of twelve years old.

2. Another writer improves upon this. He stretches the expansion of the wings to eighteen feet, a width so enormous that, as he says, the bird can never enter the forest; and he declares that a single one will attack a man, and carry off a stag. A modern traveler, however, soars far beyond these puny flights of imagination and gravely gives forty feet as the measurement, carefully noted, as he informs us, “with his own hand," from the actual speci

men.

3. Humboldt dissipated these extravagances, though he confesses that it appeared to himself of colossal size, and it was only the actual measurement of a dead specimen that corrected the optical illusion. He met with no example that exceeded nine feet, and he was assured by many of the inhabitants of Quito that they had never shot any that exceeded eleven.

4. This estimate, however, appears to be below the reality; for Tschudi, a most careful and reliable authority, assigns to this bird in one place an expanse of " from twelve to thirteen feet," while in another he says: "I measured a very large male condor, and the width from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was fourteen English feet and two inches, an enormous expanse of wing, not equaled by any other bird except the white albatross." So far from his "trussing an elephant," or even an ox, he cannot,

according to Tschudi, raise even a sheep from the ground. He cannot, when flying, carry a weight exceeding eight or ten pounds.

5. The voracity of the obscene bird is very great. The owner of some captive specimens assured the naturalist that he had given to one, in the course of a single day, by way of experiment, eighteen pounds of meat, consisting of the entrails of oxen; that the bird devoured the whole and ate his allowance the next day with the usual appetite.

6. Except when rising from the ground, I do not recollect ever having seen one of these birds flap its wings. Near Lima I watched several for nearly half an hour without once taking off my eyes. They moved in large curves, sweeping in circles, descending and ascending without once flapping. As they glided close over my head, I intently watched from an oblique position the outlines of the separate and terminal feathers of the wing. If there had been the least vibratory movement, these would have blended together; but they were seen distinct against the blue sky. It is truly wonderful to see so great a bird, hour after hour, and without any apparent exertion, wheeling and gliding over mountain and river.

GOSSE AND DARWIN.

73. — THE BALD EAGLE.

at'tri-būtes, properties.
av-o-ca'tions, business.
con-tem'pla-tive, thoughtful.

de-võt'ed, fated, doomed.

e-the're-al, celestial.

mag-a-zine [-zen'], storehouse.

He clasps the crag with hookéd hands ;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

TENNYSON.

1. THIS noted bird, as he is the most beautiful of his tribe and the adopted emblem of our country, is entitled to particular notice. He has long been known to naturalists, being common to both continents, and occasionally met with from a very high latitude to the borders of the torrid zone, but chiefly in the vicinity of the sea and along the shores and cliffs of our lakes and large rivers.

2. Formed by nature for braving the severest cold; feeding equally on the produce of the sea and of the land; possessing powers of flight capable of outstripping even the tempests themselves; unawed by anything but man; and, from the ethereal heights to which he soars, looking abroad at one glance on an immeasurable expanse of forests, fields, lakes, and ocean deep below him, he appears indifferent to local changes of season, as in a few minutes he can pass from summer to winter, from the lower to the higher regions, the abode of eternal cold,—and thence descend at will to the torrid or the arctic regions of the earth.

3. In procuring these, he displays in a very singular manner the genius and energy of his character, which is fierce, contemplative, daring, and tyrannical, attributes not exerted save on particular occasions, but, when put forth, overwhelming all opposition. Elevated upon a high, dead limb of some gigantic tree, that commands a wide