He 
‘the pond. The gate is then opened, and 
in a “Chinese goose race’. they make a 
dash for the water, and in.a few seconds 
have swallowed everything and are out 
again and as busy as ever at their toilet. 
The pouch of these birds will hold quite 
two gallons of water, and you can calculate 
the quantity of fish it would 
contain. With the exception of 
“Jim,” the rhinoceros, the Syrian 
pelican is the oldest animal in 
the Gardens. 
Cap 
A DEATH and an addition within 
afew days is curious, 
but this happened 
with the Bateleur, 
which is no doubt a most beautiful 
bird. The profile position is the 
photograph of the bird just dead, 
the other is the new arrival, which 
bemg young does not yet show 
the beauties of the plumage. In 
the old bird the extreme shortness 
of the tail is well 
shown, and this is 
a point which dis- 
tinguishes the 
Bateleur from all 
other members of 
the family. They 
are Inhabitants of 
the whole of 
Africa, and they | 
Bateleur 
Eagle. 
prey on young 
antelopes, lambs, 
and sick sheep, 
although their 
chief food is snakes 
and lizards. 
BENGAL 
MONKEY. 
"Qs 
HvERy keeper at the Zoo has his favourite, 
and that of Mr. Church, the 
veteran keeper of the Hastern 
and Great Aviary, is the 
Secretary Vulture. Mr. Church has been at 
the Gardens over forty years—longer than 
any other keeper. The other morning I met 
him carrying a small box, and in answer to 
The Secretary 
Vulture. 
Animal Life 
my enquiry as to what was inside he said : 
“Oh, sir, it’s only a snake for Billy.” I 
followed him into the aviary, as I knew 
“Billy” to be the Secretary Vulture, and, 
although I had seen him Kull rats, I had not 
seen him tackle a snake. The snake, which 
was about fifteen inches long, was thrown on 
the ground, 
and immedi- 
ately the bird 
saw it he 
went for it in 
an instant, 
and quickly 
Jalled 1¢ with 
a series of 
licks given 
fwith the 
rapidity of a 
postman’s 
double knock, 
and with a 
force so great 
that death 
was instanta- 
neous; then 
after looking at his victim, 
first with one eye and then 
the other, he got the head 
well in his beak and gobbled 
down the fifteen mches in a 
very few seconds. The Secre- 
tary Bird was so named by 
) the Dutchim Africa on account 
m of the similarity of the 
feathers behind the head to 
quills put behind the ears by 
clerks when interrupted in 
writing. These birds are held 
in high favour by the Boers 
on account of the service they 
render in destroying reptiles. 
In form it resembles both the 
crane and the eagle, having a body somewhat 
like the former and the head shaped lke the 
latter; and as the following account by 
Levaillant, im his ‘‘ Oiseaux d'Afrique,” must 
be credited, I think the bird has the eating 
capacity of both. He says, in describing a 
fierce combat between a large-sized snake and 
the ‘‘serpent eater,” as the Hottentots of the 
SILVERY 
\/ GIBBON. 
