life, which I believe can be depended upon. This is a matter of general
education, which is, fortunately, and with no doubt whatever,
progressing at a quite perceptible rate.

"Yes; I should say that the condor has a fair chance to survive, in
limited numbers.

"Another bird which in my opinion is far nearer extinction than the
condor, so far as California is concerned, is the white-tailed kite.
This is a perfectly harmless bird, but one which harries over the
marshes, where it has been an easy target for the idle duck-hunter.
Then, too, its range was limited to the valley bottoms, where human
settlement is increasingly close. I know of only _two_ live pairs within
the state last year!

"Finally, let me remark that the rate of increase of the California
condor is not one whit less than that of the band-tailed pigeon! Yet,
there is no protection at all for the latter in this state, even in the
nesting season; and thousands were shot last spring, in the
unprecedented concentration of the species in the southern coast
counties. (See Chambers in _The Condor_ for May, 1912, p. 108.)"

* * * * *

The California Condor is one of the only two species of condor now
living, and it is the only one found in North America. As a matter of
national pride, and a duty to posterity, the people of the United States
can far better afford to lose a million dollars from their national
treasury than to allow that bird to become extinct. Its preservation for
all coming time is distinctly a white man's burden upon the state of