Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1920 — HARD TO GET CONDOR EGGS [ARTICLE]

HARD TO GET CONDOR EGGS

Only Seven Aro Known to Bo In Existence, and the Bird Itself Is Nesr Extinction. * The Academy of Science in Philadelphia, some years ago, lost an egg. Presumably It was stolen. It was the egg of a California condor, and worth a lot of money. Only seven eggs of that bird are known to exist in collections. It frequents the most Inaccessible peaks in southern California, and hatches it* youag at dlzsy heights In caves in the faces of cliffs. Thus the task of procuring an egg is one involving utmost danger. The species, a gigantic vulture, has been almost exterminated. Cattlemen and sheepmen poison carcasses to destroy wolves and bears; ths condor* ent the bait and die. That an ostrich egg may be dangerous, if overripe, was discovered a while ago by Doctor Bauer of the Smithsonian institution. While he was boring a hole in one, it exploded, tbe flying fragments cutting him badly- ' The eggs of some orioles are marked with grotesque figures, often resembling Chinese characters. Experts in oriental languages have on occasions been asked to read them, but no satisfactory ’translation has been obtained.