Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1896 — GREED BROUGHT DISASTER. [ARTICLE]

GREED BROUGHT DISASTER.

Vulture Got Away with a Cow’i Carcass, but Suffered Capture. A bird of prey as tall as a man! Such is the prize just capered by the superintendent of Richard Gird’s ranch in the hills south of Chino, San Bernardino County. The prisoner is a magnificent specimen of the California vulture, without doubt the largest ever taken captive. From the crown of its ferocious looking, red-wattled head to its strong, scaly talons it measures six feet. Its plucky captor is an inch or two shorter in his cowhide boots. The man has the advantage in weight, for the bird weighs 100 pounds. Still, that is a fair fighting weight to carry through the rarefied upper air. In order to accomplish this feat the vulture is*provided with tvings that have a spread of twelve feet. Withal, the ornithologists who have seen it say that it is merely a youngster. Apart from the red wattles already alluded to, the bird’s head conveys the idea of a very bald old man of miserly Instincts. The back and upper part of the wings are gray and the tail and larger wing feathers are a glossy black. The legs and feet are of a reddish hue. Altogether Mr. Gird’s pet is a formid-able-looking customer. Partly for this reason, partly because of his red poll, partly because of his light weight in contrast to his extreme height and strength and partly because he shows a vicious inclination to deal knockout blows to whoever approaches him, Mr. Gird proposes to match him against any captive wild bird living. If the match were an eating contest Mr. Gird would probably be on the safe side. Allured by the palatable flavor of a dead cow, the bird devoured nearly every particle of flesh from its bones, w'hlch so oppressed him that, however* vigorously he flapped his wings, he was unable to soar away to his eyrie among distant mountain fastnesses. In this humiliating predicament he was lassoed and dragged, fluttering ponderously but helplessly, to Mr. Gird’s stable. His mood just at present is a trifle morose, as might be expected under the circumstances, uut Mr. Gird hopes to convert the bird into an affectionate and interesting household pet. Even In the bird’s presnet untutored condition his owner declares that he would not take SI,OOO sos him. Mr. Gird probably does not exagger, ate the value of his acquisition. The California vulture Is very nearly extinct, owing to the traps laid for birds of prey by settlers.—San Francisco Examiner.