This, of all the condors, is the strongest; and he takes ostentatious delight in combating against the wind, and balancing himself on extended but flutterless wing in the most imposing and majestic manner. It has been said of the moromoro, that, seizing the newly-born lamb, he throws it over his shoulder, where he keeps it steadily fixed; and, having thus secured his prey, rises on the wing, and betakes himself to flight.[57]
2. Condor of ruff and mantle of the colour of clear coffee.—He has of embregadura from eleven to thirteen feet, and he is swift and daring.
3. Condor with white mantle and ruff.—He has expanse of wing, or embregadura, from nine to eleven feet; and this is the most abundant and beautiful species. The condor inhabits the steep rocks of the Andes; and, according to the observations of Santiago, he makes every day two journeys to the coast in search of food, which shows his prodigious velocity.
In our dissection of this bird, we met with no air-vessel which could maintain a communication between the lungs and the spongy substance of the clavicles, nor any communication between the crop and windpipe. The internal cavity of the chest is lined by a fine and transparent membrane or pleura, which forms various little cells; the lungs descend as low as the abdomen, and adhere, at their posterior extremity, to the spine and ribs, which have perforations at the points of adhesion, communicating with the interior of their spongy body. The texture of the lungs is porous, so that, as soon as they are blown into and inflated through the windpipe, they freely supply with air all the recesses or concealed crevices, great and small, that are about them; and they also fill with air the cavities of the ribs and sternum.
Condor-grease is considered excellent for resolving and dissipating hard glandular tumours of the breast and other parts of the body; and the Peruvians attribute to it as many other virtues as the Europeans do to the kid, of which it is said by one of their physicians that totus est medicamentosus—all is medicinal.
INSECTS.
It is well known that warm and humid countries are infested with swarms of small insects, as flies, mosquitos, zancudos, fleas, &c.; and a certain traveller has asserted that, on this account, Lima was insupportable as a place of residence: but the statement is erroneous, for such insects do not flourish in the midst of population and cleanliness.
Notwithstanding the mildness of winter in Lima, it is sufficient to annihilate the flies and zancudos: mosquitos are not within doors at any season of the year. The flies and zancudos multiply in summer; and the latter are very annoying, especially at night, for they prevent sleep by the buzzing of their wings. But by taking care that no water be left in the house till it become nearly putrid, this little insect will not be allowed to grow troublesome; for the zancudos are the offspring of the animalcules which are produced in water tending to a state of decomposition: neither do the flies prove troublesome by their numbers in the houses where cleanliness is not neglected.
The pediculus may be said to be sterile on the coast, but most highly prolific in the Sierra: insects of this and the cimex kind persecute man wherever he sojourns, and Lima does not appear to be more infested or overstocked with such vermin than certain European cities. In Paris alone there are seventy-seven species of the cimex.[58]