158 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



The Secretary-bird has a peculiar and stately demeanour which 

 any one acquainted with the bird in a state of nature does not 

 easily forget, and nothing seems more inexact than the description 

 given by Brehm, when he writes, it " runs about among the tall 

 grass-stems, or hovers above them."* An excellent figure of the 

 bird in a state of nature is given by Mr. J. G. Millais, in his * A 

 Breath from the Veldt.' The weight of a very large specimen, 

 whose skin I possess, was in the flesh only 10 lbs. My son 

 once came across one roosting in a tree, or " thorn-bush," at 

 sundown. 



Driving along this road, and when one passes a swampy space, 

 or crosses a sluit, it is not unusual to disturb a Hammerkop, 

 Scopus umbretta, when it takes to its slow and heavy flight. A 

 writer in the excellent ' Royal Natural History,' recently com- 

 pleted, states : — " Everywhere these birds are mainly crepuscular, 

 and are but seldom seen in full daylight." This is certainly not 

 my own experience, for, especially in the winter season, these 

 birds are in evidence all day long to one who goes far afield and 

 in their haunts. The Hammerkop is plentiful around Pretoria, 

 wherever sluits, water-holes or marshes are found. It is an 

 unsuspecting bird and easily approached. I once marked one 

 down that had settled in a water-hole not more than six feet 

 broad though moderately deep, and I actually reached its edge 

 before the bird took flight. It is much scarcer near the town in 

 the summer, when it has probably retired to breed. 



Along the road, and especially on telegraph-poles, one usually 

 sees Buzzards, especially Buteo desertoriim. This was the preva- 

 lent species near Pretoria when I visited the country before, but 

 seems now — or was during my second sojourn — much scarcer; 

 while, per contra, the Black-shouldered Kite, Elanus cceruleus, 

 which I formerly described as scarce, hovering high in the air, 

 and generally out of reach of the gun, was now plentiful close 

 to the town, and to be seen in trees near dwellings. The real 

 habits of birds are not to be discovered except under prolonged 

 observation. 



After crossing the Crocodile river, over which there is now 

 a good bridge, we outspanned at a roadside canteen, kept bj 7 the 



* ' From North Pole to Equator,' p. 187 



