Record of Another Condor Death
Record of Another Condor Death.-In May, 1945, I ha.d a letter from Mr. Ian McMillan of Shandon, California, telling me that Mr. Carl Twisselman had found a dead adult Condor (Gymnogyps califortianus) near one of his watering troughs seven miles northwest of McKittrick, Kern County, California. The bird had been dead about two or three weeks and was badly decomposed on the side on which it had lain on the wet ground. The specimen was brought to the Santa Barbara. Museum where I photographed it. The feathers and skeleton were saved. No bones were broken, but the left femur and tibia were badly infected by a disease which was probably osteomyolitis. The processes of both bones were eaten away almost entirely. The indications were that this Condor had suffered with this disease for quite some time and that it undoubtedly caused the bird’s death.- E. Z. RETT, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara, Califomia, March 13, 1946.
