AN ABERRANT HAWK 



above. A condor a trifle farther off observes the interest 

 shown by its companion, and so on to the uttermost 

 verges of Peru. The condor is sure to be on view at the 

 Zoo, it is so very excellent a bird for menagerie pur- 

 poses a statement which would appear to be unlikely 

 if there were no facts to support it. But they live long, 

 and in the year 1889 died an old bird which was purchased 

 so long ago as 1856. The very first specimen ever 

 acquired was bought in 1853. Besides the common 

 condor known as Sarcorhamphus gryphus, is another 

 form, the " condor pardo," which is through life of 

 a brown colour, a hue which belongs to the young of 

 the common species. 



THE SECRETARY BIRD 



This handsome long-legged hawk is practically always 

 on view at the Zoo. Its grey body with black wings, 

 its stilt-like legs, and the tuft of feathers on the head 

 which have suggested the name, mark it out as an 

 abnormal form of the Falconid tribe. Its deeper lying 

 structures show it to be not very far removed from the 

 eagle tribe, but still to form a very distinct group of its 

 own, which is thought by some to be nearer to the root 

 of the rapacious birds than any existing form. The 

 bird is purely African, and ranges from north to south. 

 On the west it has been given a different name. Its 

 range in that continent is not at all unlike that of the 

 crowned crane. The name of secretary bird is thought 

 by some to have been derived from the tuft of feathers 

 on the head, which suggest a bunch of pens carried by 

 a clerk. Others again have held they are like arrows, 

 and that the name is a corruption of Sagittarius. Ser- 

 pentarim reptilivorm is its scientific appellation. The 

 bird is one to be fostered, and it is indeed on the 

 protected list ; for it attacks and gets the better of the 

 numerous venomous serpents of Africa. Its mode of 



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