THE SECRETARY BIRD. 613 
eggs, of a white hue spotted with red, are laid. The young ones 
are very late in quitting the parental home; for they do not leave it 
till they have acquired full development. Nearly four months elapse 
before they are able to stand firmly and run about with complete 
freedom. : 
The Secretary Bird is much appreciated at the Cape of Good 
Hope, on account of the services it renders in destroying venornous 
reptiles. As it is easily tamed if captured when young, the colonists 
have made a domestic bird of it, and use it to protect their poultry 
against the incursions of serpents and rats. With the inhabitants of 
the poultry-yard it is always on good terms, even to quelling the 
quarrels which spring up among the Gallinaceze around it. But it 
must be told that it is necessary to see that it is sufficiently fed, 
for otherwise it will not hesitate to help itself occasionally to a 
chicken. 
In 1832 the Secretary Bird was introduced into the French West 
Indies, particularly Guadaloupe and Martinique, on purpose to make 
war upon the Zrigonocephalus, or Rattlesnake, a dangerous reptile 
swarming in those countries, which we mentioned in a previous 
portion of this work. The introduction of the Secretary Bird into 
the Antilles proved to be a real benefit. In order to be convinced 
of this it is only necessary to read the interesting work on this ques- 
tion published a few years ago by M. Rufz de Lavison, who was for 
a long time an inhabitant of the French West Indies previous to his 
becoming director of the Jardin Zoologique d’Acclimatation in Paris. 
