This ocean-going bird once had a wide range overseas in the temperate areas of the North Atlantic.  It is recorded from Ulster County, New York, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia and Florida.  It was about of the size of the common tern.

THE CALIFORNIA CONDOR, (Gymnogyps californianus).—­I feel that the existence of this species hangs on a very slender thread.  This is due to its alarmingly small range, the insignificant number of individuals now living, the openness of the species to attack, and the danger of its extinction by poison.  Originally this remarkable bird,—­the largest North American bird of prey,—­ranged as far northward as the Columbia River, and southward for an unknown distance.  Now its range is reduced to seven counties in southern California, although it is said to extend from Monterey Bay to Lower California, and eastward to Arizona.

Regarding the present status and the future of this bird, I have been greatly disturbed in mind.  When a unique and zoologically important species becomes reduced in its geographic range to a small section of a single state, it seems to me quite time for alarm.  For some time I have counted this bird as one of those threatened with early extermination, and as I think with good reason.  In view of the swift calamities that now seem able to fall on species like thunderbolts out of clear skies, and wipe them off the earth even before we know that such a fate is impending, no species of seven-county distribution is safe.  Any species that is limited to a few counties of a single state is liable to be wiped out in five years, by poison, or traps, or lack of food.

[Illustration:  CALIFORNIA CONDOR Now Living in the New York Zoological Park.]

On order to obtain the best and also the most conservative information regarding this species, I appealed to the Curator of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, of the University of California.  Although written in the mountain wilds, I promptly received the valuable contribution that appears below.  As a clear, precise and conservative survey of an important species, it is really a model document.

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THE STATUS OF THE CALIFORNIA CONDOR IN 1912 By Joseph Grinnell

“To my knowledge, the California Condor has been definitely observed within the past five years in the following California counties:  Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Kern, and Tulare.  In parts of Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Kern counties the species is still fairly common, for a large bird, probably equal in numbers to the golden eagle in those regions that are suited to it.  By suitable country I mean cattle-raising, mountainous territory, of which there are still vast areas, and which are not likely to be put to any other use for a very long time, if ever, on account of the lack of water.

“While in Kern County last April, I was informed by a reliable man who lives near the Tejon Rancho that he had counted twenty-five condors in a single day, since January 1 of the present year.  These were on the Tejon Rancho, which is an enormous cattle range covering parts of the Tehachapi and San Emigdio Mountains.