THE SECRETARY BIRD. 613 



eggs, of a white hue spotted with red, are laid. The young ones 

 are very late in quitting the parental home ; for they do not leave it 

 till they have acquired full development. Nearly four months elapse 

 before they are able to stand firmly and run about with complete 

 freedom. 



The Secretary Bird is much appreciated at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, on. account of the services it renders in destroying venomous 

 reptiles. As it is easily tamed if captured when young, the colonists 

 have made a domestic bird of it, and use it to protect their poultry 

 against the incursions of serpents and racs. With the inhabitants of 

 the poultry-yard it is always on good terms, even to quelling the 

 quarrels which spring up among the Gallinacese around it. But it 

 must be told that it is necessary to see that it is sufficiently fed, 

 for otherwise it will not hesitate to help itself occasionally to a 

 chicken. 



In 1832 the Secretary Bird was introduced into the French West 

 Indies, particularly Guadaloupe and Martinique, on purpose to make 

 war upon the T?'igonocephalus, or Rattlesnake, a dangerous reptile 

 swarming in those countries, which we mentioned in a previous 

 portion of this work. The introduction of the Secretary Bird into 

 the Antilles proved to be a real benefit. In order to be convinced 

 of this it is only necessary to read the interesting work on this ques- 

 tion published a few years ago by M. Rufz de Lavison, who was for 

 a long time an inhabitant of the French West Indies previous to his 

 becoming director of the Jardin Zoologique d'Acclimatation in Paris. 



