OSTRICHES. 135 



of his old home, but a poor dejected creature, utterly- 

 crushed and broken-hearted by long residence under 

 cold, grey skies. Altogether, everything hailing from 

 Austral Africa looked very homesick that dull day, 

 with the sole exception of the secretary bird, which, 

 after a long and persevering search — for old Jacob's 

 sake — we at last succeeded in finding. He was a 

 delightful bird ; as tame as our own old friend, and 

 evidently a great favourite with his keeper. We felt 

 wickedly covetous, as the man, pleased at the interest 

 we showed, put the intelligent bird through a number 

 of comical performances, which included the " killing " 

 of a stuffed ratskin, kept for the purpose of displaying 

 how the secretary in his wild state beats to death the 

 mice, lizards, and other creatures on which he feeds. 



But where were the ostriches ? Just as actors, when 

 they have a holiday, usually spend it in going to the 

 theatre, so, of all the creatures in the Zoo, those we 

 were most anxious to see were the great birds of whose 

 company during the last few years we might reason- 

 ably be supposed to have had enough. But no ostriches 



. were to be seen ; and the keeper of whom we inquired 



told us that all were dead. On asking the cause of 



death, we heard that it was " because the people fed 



them on pennies." We went to the office of the secretary 



of the gardens, and found that this statement was 



really true, and that the post-mortem examination of 



each poor bird had brought to light a large number of 



copper coins which had been swallowed. We were 



glad to hear that any ostriches kept in the gardens in 

 11 



