Some Notes on the Secretary Bird. 107


In one case the nest was on top of a wild olive, and within

a hundred yards of it was the neat nest of the big Martial Hawk-

Eagle (A. bellicosus'), but as the latter bird is a hunter pure and

simple, living on entirely different kind of prey, the two hawks

never interfered with each other.


I cannot quite understand why the Secretary is dubbed a

vulture—he has nothing vulturine about him,—he kills his own

prey in his own fashion and tainted meat seriously upsets him.

I look upon him as a large ground Goshawk and not at all as a

vulture.


Mrs. Annie Martin, in her “Home-life on an Ostrich

Farm,” gives a most interesting account of a tame Secretary

she kept, from which I will give an extract : —


“Jacob’s (the Secretary’s) enormous appetite, and our

“ difficulty in satisfying it, were well known in the neighbour-

“ hood, and the owners of several prolific cats, instead of drown-

“ing the superfluous progeny, bestowed them on us as offerings

“ to Jacob.


“They were killed and given to him at the rate of one a

“ day. Once, however, by an unlucky accident, one of them got

“ into his clutches without the preliminary knock on the head;

“ and the old barbarian swallowed it alive. For some minutes

“ we could hear the poor thing mewing piteously in Jacob’s

“ interior, while he himself stood there listening and looking all

“round in a puzzled manner to see where the noise came from.

“ He evidently thought there was another kitten somewhere, and

•“seemed much disappointed at not finding it. Jacob was largely

“ endowed with that quality which is best expressed by the

“American word ‘cussedness’; and though friendly enough

“ with 11s, he was very spiteful and malicious towards all other

“creatures on the place. He grew much worse after we went to

“ live up country, and became at last a kind of feathered Ishmael;

“ hated by all his fellows, and returning their dislike with interest.


“Sometime after we had settled on our farm we found

“that he had been systenvatically inflicting a cruel course of i 11-

“ treatment on one unfortunate fowl, which, having been chosen

“ as the next victim for the table, was enclosed with a view to

“ fattening, in a little old packing case with wooden bars nailed



