648 EAPTOEES, OR BIRDS OF PREY. 



venomous 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 Galli- 

 naceae around it. But it must be related 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 Trigonocephalus, or Rattlesnake, a dan- 

 gerous 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 

 published a few years ago on this question by M. Rufz de Lavison, 

 who was for a long time an inhabitant of the French West Indies 

 before he became director of the Jardin Zoologique d'Acclimatation, 

 in Paris. 



THE EISD. 



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