Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/185

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that very stirring Christmas week of 1895, and quite unconscious that we were projecting a journey that, a few days later, would have almost brought us in contact with Dr. Jameson and his merrie men, my son and self decided to spend the vacation at Rustenburg, there to collect, under the guidance of that good field naturalist, W. Ayres, who has made the sleepy spot his home for a number of years. We started on the afternoon of December 22nd, driving a light cart, attended by our Zulu "boy" John, and armed with necessary apparatus for a successful ornithological and entomological raid. Guns, nets, a taxidermal box of sundries, stifling-bottles, boxes, &c, helped to crowd the already well-filled vehicle, and incited a wish that the "roads" might not prove too heavy.

After leaving Pretoria and passing through Daas Poort—a spot ten days later to mark the nightly vigil of armed Boers—the road crosses a level veld between two ranges of hills. Here one may generally see an occasional Secretary Vulture, Serpentarius secretarius, and as there is now not only a heavy penalty for killing one of these birds, but also an inducement offered to the "common informer" by giving him a share of the legal plunder, the "Secretary" is seldom molested. It is, however, an overrated bird, so far as its snake-destroying propensities are concerned; its usual food—and I have conducted more than one post-mortem—consists of small lizards, especially Agama hispida, and, in the season, orthopterous insects. To approach one of these birds on the open veld with only a shot-gun is frequently a vain quest. As you walk towards it, so does it walk away; as you quicken your pace the bird does the same. Still there are times and seasons when a casual and nearer acquaintance is made, though a rifle is the best weapon with which to supply a museum.