Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/644

Rh 618 S E C S E D The skin round the eyes is bare and of an orange colour. The head, neck, and upper parts of the body and wing- coverts are bluish-grey; but the carpal feathers, including the primaries, are black, as also are the feathers of the vent and tibiae, the last being in some examples tipped with white. The tail-quills are grey for the greater part of their length, then barred with black and tipped with white; but the two middle feathers are more than twice as long as those next to them, and drooping downwards present a very unique appearance. The habits of the Secretary-bird have been very frequently described, one of the best accounts of them being by Verreaux in the Zoological Society's Proceedings for 1856 (pp. 348-352). Its chief prey consists of insects and reptiles, and as a foe to snakes it is held in high esteem. Making every allowance for exaggeration, it seems to possess a strange partiality for the destruction of the latter, and successfully attacks the most venomous species, striking them with its knobbed wings and kicking forwards at them with its feet, until they are rendered incapable of offence, when it swallows them. The nest is a huge structure, placed in a bush or tree, and in it two white eggs, spotted with rust-colour, are laid. The young remain in the nest for a long while, and even when four months old are unable to stand upright. They are very frequently brought up tame, and become agreeable not to say useful pets about a house, the chief drawbacks to them being that when hungry they will help themselves to the small poultry, and the fragility of their legs, which follows on any sudden alarm, and ends in their death. The Secretary-bird is found, but not very abundantly and only in some localities, over the greater part of Africa, especially in the south, extending northwards on the west to the Gambia and in the interior to Khartum, where Von Heuglin observed it breeding. The systematic position of the genus Serpentarius has long been a matter of discussion, and is still one of much interest, though of late classifiers have been pretty well agreed in placing it in the Order Accipitres. Most of them, however, have shown great want of perception by putting it in the Family Falconidse. No anatomist can doubt its forming a peculiar Family, Serpcntariidx, differing more from the Falconidx than do the Vulturidae ; and the fact of Prof. A. Milne -Ed wards having recognized in the Miocene of the Allier the fossil bone of a species of this genus, S. robustus (Ois. foss. France, ii. pp. 465-468, pi. 186, figs. 1-6), proves that it is an ancient form, one possibly carrying on a direct and not much modified descent from a generalized form, whence may have sprung not only the Falconidx but perhaps the progenitors of the Ardeidse and Ciconiidse, as well as the puzzling Cariamidx (SERIEMA, q.v.). (A. N.) SECULAR GAMES were celebrated at Rome for three days and nights with great ceremony to mark the com- mencement of a new sseculum or generation. Originally they were a propitiatory festival, imported from Etruria under the name of Ludi Terentini, and held at irregular intervals, in view of extraordinary prodigies ; but in 249 B.c. it was decreed that they should be celebrated in every hundredth year after that date. This decree was frequently disregarded, partly for political reasons and partly because in Augustus's time and with his approval the quindecem- viri, acting under Greek influence, sanctioned the longer period of 110 years. The dates of the actual celebrations are as follows : the first in 509 B.C., the second in 348, the third in 249, the fourth in 146, the fifth by Augustus in 17 (for this occasion Horace wrote his Carmen Sseculare), the sixth by Claudius in 47 A.D. = 800 A.TJ.C., the seventh by Douiitian in 88, the eighth by Antoninus Pius in 147 = 900 A.U.C., the ninth by Severus in 204 (220 years after the Augustan celebration), the tenth by Philip in 248, the eleventh and last by Gallienus c. 262. The projected celebration of Maxi- mian in 304 did not take place. Censorinus, De Die Natali, c. 17; Zosimus, ii. 1 q. ; Val. Max., ii. c. 5. The dates of the first two celebrations appear to rest only on the authority of Valerius Antias ; the others are certain. The qnindecemviral books assigned fictitious dates for the pre- Augustan celebrations. Comp. Marquardt, Die riimische Staattreruultung, iii. p. 369 &j. SECUNDERABAD, one of the chief British military cantonments in India, is situated in the native state of Haidarabad (Hyderabad) or the Nizam's Dominions, in 17 26' 30" N. lat. and 78 33' E. long., 1830 feet above the level of the sea, and 6 miles north-east of Haidarabad city. Secunderabad is the largest military station in India and forms the headquarters of the Haidarabad subsidiary force, which constitutes a division of the Madras army. The strength of the military force stationed at Secunderdkul in 1883 was 5632, European troops numbering 2276 and native troops 3356. To the south-west of the cantonment there is a large reservoir or tank, known as the Husain Sagar, about 3 miles in circumference. Secunderabad town, which forms the cantonment bazaar, contains a population of over 30,000. Adjoining this cantonment to the north is the Boldram cantonment, one of the stations of the HaidaraMd contingent, under the immediate com- mand of the nizam ; and 2 miles to the south of Secundera- bad cantonment are the lines of the Haidarabad reformed troops, also belonging to the nizam. During the mutiny (1857-58) both the subsidiary force and the Haidarabad contingent rendered good service. SECUNDUS, JOHANNES, or JOHANN EVEKTS (1511- 1536), Latin poet, was born at The Hague on 10th No- vember 1511. He was descended from an ancient and honourable family in the Netherlands ; his father, Nicholas Everts, or Everard, seems to have been high in the favour of the emperor Charles V. On what account the son was called Secundus is not known. His father intended him for the law ; but though he took his degree at Bourges it does not appear that he devoted much time to legal pur- suits. Poetry and the sister arts of painting and sculpture engaged his mind at a very early period. In 1533 he went to Spain, and soon afterwards became secretary to the cardinal-archbishop of Toledo, in a department of business which required no other qualification than that which he possessed in a very eminent degree, a facility in writing with elegance the Latin language. It was during this period that he composed his most famous work, the Batu^ a series of amatory poems, of which the fifth, seventh, and ninth Carmina of Catullus seem to have given the hint. In 1534 he accompanied Charles V. to the siege of Tunis, but gained few laurels as a soldier. After quitting the service of the archbishop, Secundus was employed as secre- tary by the bishop of Utrecht ; and so much did he dis- tinguish himself by the classical elegance of his composi- tions that he was called upon to fill the important post of private Latin secretary to the emperor, who was then in Italy. But, having arrived at St Amand, near Tournay, he was cut off by a violent fever on 8th October 1536. SEDAINE, MICHEL JEAN (1719-1797), dramatist, was born at Paris on 4th July 1719. Few men of letters have risen from a lower station. Although his father was an architect, he died when Sedaine was quite young, leaving no fortune, and the boy began life as a mason's labourer. He worked himself up in his trade and was at last taken as pupil and partner by the builder who employed him. Meanwhile he had done his best to repair his deficiencies of education, and in 1753 he published a volume of poems of some merit. He then took to the theatre and after composing various vaudevilles and operettas attracted the attention of Diderot, and had two remarkable plays ac- cepted and performed at the Theatre Francais. The first and longest, the Philosophe sans le Savoir, was acted in 1765 ; the second, a lively one-act piece, La Gageure Im- prevue, in 1768. These two at once took their place as stock pieces and are still ranked among the best French plays, each of its class. Sedaine inclined somewhat to the school of drame or tragedie bourgeoise, but he was free from the excessive sentimentality which in the hands of Diderot and others marred the style, and he had a vein of singularly natural and original comedy. Indeed his originality is one of his chief points, though except the two pieces mentioned little or nothing of his has kept the stage or the shelves. Sedaine, who became a member of the Academy, secretary for architecture of the fine arts division, and a prosperous man generally, was personally