Hence the former are less able to kill a living animal, or tear the carcass of a dead one.

They are unable, also, to raise a large prey in their claws; and the stories of vultures carrying off deer, and full-grown sheep, are mere fables.

Even the condor--the largest of the species known--cannot lift into the air a weight of more than ten pounds.

A deer of that weight would be rather a small one, I fancy.

Most of the wonderful stories about the condor were propagated by the discoverers and conquerors of Spanish America; who, if they were great conquerors, were also the greatest braggarts the world ever saw.