Also 7–8 condore, 7–9 cuntur, (8 candore, contor, contur, 9 condur). [a. Sp. condor, ad. Peruvian cuntur the native name. (See Skeat in Trans. Philol. Soc., 1885, 93.) In Eng. the stress is shifted to the first syllable.]
1. A very large South American bird of the vulture kind (Sarcorhamphus gryphus), inhabiting chiefly the high regions of the Andes, having blackish plumage, mixed with white in the wings, and remarkable for the caruncle that falls over the bill. b. California Condor: the great vulture of California (Cathartes californianus), resembling the South American Condor in size and other characteristics.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. xxxvii. Those [birdes] which they call Condores, be of an exceeding greatnes.
1694. H. Sloane, The Cuntur, in Phil. Trans., XVIII. 62. Other Fowls … of a large size, called Cuntur, and by the Spaniards corruptedly Condor.
1745. P. Thomas, Jrnl. Anson’s Voy., 95. As for Birds, there are some … so small … they are taken for Bees or Butter-flies: And others again call’d Condores, so vastly big, that they’ll kill a Calf, and devour a great Psart of it.
1773. in Wesley’s Jrnl., 24 Feb. (1827), III. 473. They have brought … a prodigious bird, called a contor, or contose, above six feet in height, of the eagle kind, whose wings, expanded, measure twenty-two feet four inches.
1830. Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., 84. He … perceived, at an immeasurable height, a flight of condors soaring in circles.
1849. Mrs. Sabine, trans. Humboldt’s Views of Nat., II. 40. Of the Condors, the largest individuals found round Quito measured with extended wings 14 (nearly 15 English) feet, and the smallest 8 feet.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., iii. (1873), 52. The condor lays a couple of eggs.
attrib. 1873. Dixon, Two Queens, II. vi. His condor nose and golden locks.
fig. a. 1837. Campbell, Power of Russia, i. Poland by the Northern Condor’s beak And talons torn, lies prostrated.
2. A South American gold coin.
[1849. Mrs. Sabine, trans. Humboldt’s Views of Nat., II. 44. On the first declaration of the political independence of Chili, the Condor appeared on the coinage as the symbol of strength.]
