378 The Bird 



its beak, then holding it down firmly with one of its feet, 

 it pulls upward and so tears the meat. 



So exactly correlated are these changes of habit and 

 of feet that in the Caracara, a Mexican bird of mixed 

 habits, partly rapacious and partly vulturine, the toes and 

 claw^s are correspondingly midway between the two groups 

 of birds. This bird lacks sufficient grasping power to 

 enable it to lift its prey from the ground after the manner 

 of a true Hawk; but it will overcome this difficulty by 

 carr}dng up the object in its beak, and then reaching for- 

 ward with its feet, while in full flight, and taking a careful 

 grip with its talons. 



In South Africa is a bird known as the Secretary, 

 which is really a terrestrial hawk, rarely flying, but spend- 

 ing most of its time stalking about in search of food. Any 

 one who has seen an eagle progressing upon the ground 

 b}^ means of its awkward gallop, can realize the impos- 

 sibility of such a short-legged bird preferring terrestrial 

 life, but the legs of the Secretary are as long as those of 

 a crane, although in other respects the bird w^ould pass 

 for a very long-tailed species of hawk ; it is really a haw^k 

 on stilts. However, there are reasons for supposing that 

 the Secretary Bird may be, not a more or less recent off- 

 shoot from the hawks, but a surviving t^-pe of old, old 

 days when there were no hawks and cranes and herons, 

 but instead, a few strange birds which combined the 

 characteristics of all these groups. 



The skilful way in which the Secretary^ Bird brings its 

 feet into play in the capture of serpents, of which it is 

 very fond, has been described as follows: 



