THE SECRETARY BIRD. 



The Secretary bird Is a native of Southern Africa, and appears to be toleralily numer- 

 ous in the neighbourhood of the Cape. Its colour is light gray ; the cpiill-fcathers and 

 secondaries are bhick, as are also the thighs and the crest-feathers ; the two long middle 

 tail-feathers are gray, becoming black towards their extremities, and ending in a white 

 tip, as do the rest of the tail-feathers, which are otherwise black. 



When standing erect, the height of this elegant bird is upwards of three feet ; its gait 

 is a singular stalk, resembling, in some degree, that of a person elevated on stilts. Its 

 bill is sharp and crooked ; the eyes are large and prominent, but the sight is protected 

 from the glare of intense light by a row of strong, black eyelashes, like bristles. Its 

 pecidiar name may well excite curiosity as to its origin. It arises from a tuft of sev- 

 eral elongated feathers springing from beliiud the head, and from a fancied resemlilance 

 which these have to pens stuck behind the ear. These feathers are raised up at the will 

 of the bird, so as to form a beautiful crest. The two middle tail-feathers are douljlc 

 the length of the others. 



Like the eagles, these birds live in pairs, and not in flocks ; they build their eyrie, if 

 so it may be termed, on the loftiest trees, or, where these are wanting, in the most 

 bushy and tufted thickets. Natives of the deserts and mountain gorges of Africa, they 

 take up their abode among sandy plains, interspersed with tracts of stunted, shruliljy 

 vegetation, or skirted by forests of gigantic gi'owth, preying on the reptiles wliich infest 

 a thinly-peopled region, beneath the rays of a burning sun. Their length of limb is 

 precisely adapted to enable them to pass with facility over loose and yielding sand, and 

 through tangled brushwood, but operates, in conjunction with their wings, as weapons of 

 defence. 



In the nciglil)ourhuod of the Cape, these birds have been tamed to such a degree as 

 to render them useful inmates of the poultry-yard, in which they not only destroy the 

 snakes and rats, which are too apt to intrude on these precincts, but " even," it is said, 

 " conti'ibute to the maintenance of peace among its proper inhabitants, by interpos- 

 ing in their quarrels, and separating the furious combatants, which disturb it by their 

 brawls." 



* Gypogcranus serpcntaiius. 111. 



