822 SEA SEC RE TA R Y-BIRD 



figs. 4-7), further dwelt on the taxonomic importance of the 

 equally remarkable characters of the syringeal muscles exhibited 

 alike by this form and Menura, which he accordingly placed 

 together in a division of the Acromyodian Fasseres, differing from 

 all the rest and since recognized by Mr. Sclater {3is, 1880, p. 345) 

 as a Suborder PSEUDOSCINES — the SUBOSCINES of the present 

 work. A detailed anatomical description of Atrichornis has, how- 

 ever, yet to be given, and a comparison of many other Australian 

 types is needed ^ before it can be certainly said to have no nearer 

 ally than Menura. Both the known species of Scrub-bird are 

 about the size of a small Thrush — A. damosa being the larger of 

 the two. This species is brown above, each feather barred with 

 a darker shade ; the throat and belly are reddish white, and there 

 is a large black patch on the breast ; while the flanks are brown 

 and the lower tail-coverts rufous. A. rufescens has the white and 

 black of the fore-parts replaced by brown, barred much as is the 

 upper jDlumage. Both species are said to inhabit the thickest 

 " scrub " or brushwood forest ; but little has been ascertained as 

 to their mode of life except that the males are noisy, imitative of 

 the notes of other birds and given to violent gesticulations. The 

 nest and eggs seem never to have been found, nor indeed any 

 example of the female of either species to have been procured, 

 whence that sex may be inferred to escape observation by its 

 inconspicuous appearance and retiring habits. 



SEA- used as a prefix in more birds' names than can here be 

 mentioned, and often without much precision. Thus in one part 

 of the country SEA-CROW may be the Chough, in another the 

 Cormorant, and very generally (especially inland) a Gull, while 

 in America it mav mean either a CooT or a Skimmer according to 

 locality. SEA-DOTTEREL and SEA-LARK are names of the 

 Ringed Plover, SEA-MALL, -MEL (cf. Scajiel) or -MEW have 

 been used indiff"erently for Gulls : SEA-PARROT is the Puffin, 

 SEA-PHEASANT the Pintail, SEA-PIE the Oyster-catcher, 

 SEA-SWALLOW a Tern, and so on. 



SECONDARIES, see Cubitals (p' 118). 



SECRETARY-BIRD, a very singular African form, first accur- 

 ately made known, from an example living in the menagerie of 

 the Prince of Orange, in 1769 by Vosmaer,^ in a treatise published 



fig. 1, p. 29) ; but a fuller description is needed, and the figure in Garrod's 

 paper, presently noticed in tlie text, is bad. 



1 Forbes shewed {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1882, p. 544) that Orthontx (p. 657) did 

 not belong to the group as at one time had been suspected. 



" Le Vaillant {Sec. Voy. Afrique, ii. p. 273) truly states that Kolben in 1719 

 {Caput Bonm Spei Jwdiernum, p. 182, French version, ii. p. 198) had mentioned 



