Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/308

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CONDITIONAL LIMITATION. 260 CONDORCANQUI. ■which did away with this feudal relation, thereby destroyed also the grantor's possibility of re- verter, and converted every qualified fee into an absolute fee. But it has been held, nevertheless, in two States (Xew York and JIassaehusetts) of the United States, that qualified fees of this type are still good, and that they will revert to the grantor and his heirs on the happening of the event on which they were conditioned, and these decisions are likely to be followed in the United States. But neither at the common law nor to- day has the grantor of such a fee any interest which he is capable of alienating to any other person prior to the return of the estate to him. The second meaning of the expression condi- tional limitation makes it a convenient phrase for the commoner terms executory devise and shift- ing use. While at the common law a gift of a fee simple — even though qualified as above de- scribed — was supposed to exhaust the whole power of alienation, if not the entire interest, of the donor, leaving him no capacity to give the property over, on the happening of a future con- tingency, to another; yet, as a i-esult of the Statute of Uses (passed in 1527) and the Statute of Wills (enacted in 1532) it became possible to make a fee which should, upon a specified future event, shift to another. Thus, if land be devised by will to X and his heirs on condition that they shall forever maintain their citizenship in New York, with the further proviso that in the event or a failure to comply with the condition within the lives of the donor's children the property should go over to a charity, the last-mentioned gift might take efl'ect as an executorj' devise, or conditional limitation on the prior gift. Such limitations on fees are now very common, and may, under modern statutes, usually be effected by a simple deed of grant, without invoking the aid of the Statute of Uses. See Devise ; E.st.vte ; Fee Simple ; Feudal Systeii ; Spbinfeud.'vtion ; Use; Will; and the authorities referred to xmder those titles. CONDOM, koN'dox'. A town in the Depart- ment of (jers, France, on the river Baise, here crossed by two bridges, 25 miles north-nortliwest of Audi (Map: France, G 8), The town, founded in 721, is irregularly built, but has handsome suburbs. It has a fine Gothic cathedral ( 1500- 21), adjoined by the remains of an old cloister, an e.xchanyc, and hospitals. There is a very con- siderable trade in grain, flour, wine, and espe- cially in Armagnac brandy, and manufactures of cotton, cotton yarn, etc. Bossuet was at one time Bishop of Condom. Population, in 1901, 6578. CONDONATION (Lat. condonatio. from con- doiiarr. to pardon, from com-, together + donare, to give, from donuni. Skt. diiiiii. gift, from Lat. dare, Gk. diSiyai, didotiai, OChurch Slav, dati, Lith. duti, Skt. dfi, to give). In law, forgiveness of an act by a husband or wife, which en- titles the forgiving party to a divorce. Condona- tion may be either expressed or implied. If the parties have cohabited after a knowledge of the offense complained of, this is an implied con- donation of the offense, and bars complaint un- less the offense shall have been subsequently repeated. An act once condoned is, in the eyes of the law, as though it had never been coniniit- ted, unless the guilty party repeats the offense, in which event the old offense becomes a valid ground of complaint. In other words, condona- tion is always conditional upon the discontinu- ance of the condoned misconduct. See Divokce. CON'DOR (Sp., from Peruv. cuntiir, condor). The great vulture {f<arcoramphu.<! gri/phus) of the Andes, and the largest of known flying birds, unless the albatross may sometimes exceed it. Its dimensions, however, have often been far overstated, the truth being that it varies in length from 44 to 55 inches, and in expanse of wing from 81/2 to lOy^ feet. The wings are long and extremely powerful ; the tail short, and wedge- shaped : the general color black, which is bright- est in old males, which have much white in the wing. The young are brownish. Around the lower part of the neck of both sexes there is a broad white ruff of downy feathers, above which the skin is bare and exliibits numy folds. The head of the male is cro-vned with a large, red- dish, cartilaginous comb, and the neck is fur- nished with a dilatable wattle. The beak is thick and strong, straight at the base, but the upper luandible strongly curved at the extremity. The condor feeds mostly on carrion. Its voracity 13 enormous. Tschudi mentions one in confinement at Valparaiso which ate eighteen pounds of meat in a single day, and seemed next day to have as good an appetite as usual. Condors often gorge themselves so that they cannot fly, and, if at- tacked, must disgorge in order to escape. They inhabit regions 10,000 or 15,000 feet above the level of the sea, where they are usually seen in small groups, and where they breed, making no nest, but laying their eggs on the bare rocks. To these haunts they return, after their descent into the plains for food. The height to which the condor soars in the air exceeds that of any other bird, and is often far aboe the clouds. Closelj' related to the condor, but distinguished by difi'erenees in the cartilaginous comb, bare neck, and shape of the bill, are the king ^Tilture, or king of vultures {Gtjparchus papa), of the warm parts of America, and the Californian vul- ture (Pseudngryphus Cnlifornianiis) . The king vulture is about the size of a goose, and derives its name from its driving away other vultures from prey at its pleasure. Its plumage is finely colored, reddish above, white beneath, with blu- ish-gray ruff, and black quills and tail. The Californian vulture is often longer and of greater expanse of wing than the condor, but is not so heavy a bird. It is duller colored, and has less white on the wings. Its range was re- stricted to the Pacific coast region, from Oregon southward ; it was nowhere really common, and it has now become extinct, except possibly in Lower California. Like other American vul- tures, it has no voice, the only sound that it ntters being a hoarse hiss or sort of weak snort- ing. All these large American vultures belong to the family Cathartidie, which includes the turkey -buzzards, and is less falconine than the Old World Tiltures. See Vulture and Plate of Vultures ; and Extinct Anim.ls. The first satisfactory account of the condors was given by Humboldt. Consult: Darvvin, A Ti^atitraUst's Voyage (London, 1860) ; Stejne- ger, Riverside Natural History, vol. iv. (Boston, 1885) ; Lucas, Annual Report of United States National Museum. 1889 (Washington, 1891). CONDORCANQUI, kon'dor-kan'kwe, Josfi G.4BRIEL, See Tupac Amaru II.