NATURAL 
toises, most of which were about 
‘two inches in diameter; and a num- 
ber of locusts and other insects, 
most of which were sufficiently 
whole to be worth preserving, and 
adding to his colleétion. He ob- 
served too, that, in addition to this 
mass of food, the craw contained a 
‘sort of ball, as large as the egg of a 
goose, formed of the yertebre of 
‘serpents and lizards, shells of differ- 
ent tortoises, and wings, claws, and 
shields of different kinds of beetles. 
This indigestible mass, when it was 
become sufficiently large, the secre- 
tary would, no doubt, vomit up, 
like other birds of prey*. 
Dr. Solander says, he has seen 
one of these birds take up a snake, 
a small tortoise, or other reptile, in 
its claw, and dash it with such vio- 
Jence against the ground, that the 
victim immediately died ; ; if, howe- 
ver, this did not happen to be the 
case, he tells us that the operation 
was repeated till it was killed, after 
which it was eaten. 
The secretary is easily tamed, and 
when domesticated, will eat any 
kind of food, either dressed or raw. 
If well fed, it not only lives on ami- 
¢able terms with poultry, but, if it 
Sees any quarrel, will even run to 
rt the combatants, and restore or- 
er. It is true, if pinched with 
nger, it will take care of itself, 
nd. fall, without scruple, on the 
' ladies and chickens. But this 
abuse of confidence, if it may be so 
ried, is but the effeét of imperious 
ant, and the pure and simple exer- 
cise of that necessity which rigor- 
usly devotes one half of what has 
} 
* Le Vaillant’s New Travels, ii, 246. 
are very apt to break their legs. 
tLe Vaillant. Vol,ii, _ 
Hi S'T.0 R Y./ 81] 
breath to satisfy the appetite of the 
other. 
Tame secretaries were seen by M. 
Le Vaillant in several of the planta- 
tions at the Cape. He says they 
commonly Jay two or three white 
eggs, nearly as large as those of a 
goose. The young remain a long 
time in the nest, because their legs 
being long and slender, they cannot 
easily support themselves. Kven at 
the age of four months they may be 
seen to walk resting on the heel, 
which gives them a very awkward 
appearancet+. But when they are 
seven months old, and have attained 
their full growth and size, they dis- 
play much grace and ease in their 
motions, which well accord with 
their stately figure. 
However shrewd and cunning this 
bird may be in its general conduét, 
yet M. de Buifon seems to have at- 
tributed to it a much greater degree 
of intelligence than is really its due: 
‘¢ When a painter, says he, (quoting 
a letter of the viscount de Querhcent) 
was employed in drawing one of 
these birds, it drew near him, looked 
attentively upon his paper, streiched 
out its neck, and ere¢ted the fea- 
thers of its head, as if it admired its 
figure. It often came with its wings 
raised, and its head projeéted, to 
observe what he was doing. It also 
thus approached me two or three 
times when I was sitting ata table 
in its hut in order to describe it.” 
This stretching out of its head, and 
erection of its crest, seems, however, 
to have arisen from nothing more 
than that loye which almost al] do- 
mesticated birds exhibit te have their 
heads 
_ + Thunberg says, that they are not to be reared without great difficulty, as aa 
Vol, i. p. 148. 
