THE. CO.IB.R Volume Viii November-December 1906 Number 6 Life History of the California Condor. Part I.--Finding a Condor's Nest ? BY WILLIAM L. FINLEY PHOTOGRAPHS BY HERMAN T BOHI, MAN N October of 1895, a pair of California condors (C?)',n,to.o,?s c?t/t?br,tt'a,ttts) were seen about one of the canyons of a certain rauge of mountains in Southern Cali- fornia. A search was made for the home of these birds at the time, but it could not be found. Every year since then, the pair of big birds have been seen about this locality, and many times efforts were made to find the nest, but each time the hunters returned unsuccessful. One year additional evidence was found in the bleached bones and scattered feathers lying in the bed of the canyou. This bird was in all probability the youug of that year and was ruthlessly destroyed by the rifle of some wanton wanderer. Last year the pair of old condors and a young bird, hardly able to fly, were seen perched on the limbs of an old dead tree, and the place was marked as this seemed to be definite proof that the home was nearby. But even this apparently definite proof was far from revealing the condor's nest in the rocky crevices and cliffs of the mountain side. On March 10, 1906, I set ont with two companions to make further search for the'nest. The most striking feature of this region where the condor lived is the fact that one passes thru the green fields, orchards aud vineyards; laud that is under the highest cultivation, right up to the beginning of the mountains. At eight o'clock in the morning, we were in the midst of pleasant homes and gardens, and two hours later we seemed to be ahnost in a different world; it seemed miles out of civilization. We were in the ronghest, wildest place without an indication of hmnan habitation. Wild indeed, becanse this was the natural haunt of the California condor. The contrast is striking, for xvhen we at last reached the knife- edge of one of the ridges, which broke abruptly off a hundred feet on one side and about three hundred on the other to the bed of the gulch, we had a view out the
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H. T. Bohlman. '
