SECRETAR Y-BIRD 



823 



simultaneously in Dutch and French, and afterwards included in 

 his collected works issued, under the title of Begnum Animals, in 

 1804. He was told that at the Cape of Good Hope this bird was 

 known as the " Sagittarius " or Archer, from its striding gait being 

 thought to resemble that of a bowman advancing to shoot, but that 

 this name had been corrupted into that of " Secretarius." In 

 August 1770 Edwards saw an example (apparently alive, and the 

 survivor of a pair which had been brought to England) in the pos- 

 session of Mr. Eaymond near Ilford in Essex ; and, being unac- 

 quainted with Vosmaer's work, he figured and described it as " of 



Secretary-eikd. 



a new genus " in the following year {Phil. Trans. Ixi. pp. 55, 56, 

 pi. ii.) In 1776 Sonnerat {J^oy. Noiw. Ckdiide, p. 87, pi. 50) again 



this bird under its local name of '" Snake-eater" {Slangenvreefer, Dutch transla- 

 tion, i. p. 214) ; but that author, who was a bad naturalist, thought it was a 

 Pelican and also confounded it with the Spoonbill, which is figured to illustrate 

 his account of it. Though he doubtless had seen, and perhaps tried to describe, 

 the Secretary-bird, he certainly failed to convey any correct idea of it. Latham's 

 suggestion {loc. infra cit.) that the figure of the "Grus Capensis cauda cristata" 

 in Petiver's Gazophytacium (tab. xii. fig. 12) was meant for this bird is negatived 

 by his description of it (p. 20). The figure was probably copied from one of 

 Sherard's paintings and is more likely to have had its origin in a Crane of some 

 species. Vosmaer's plate is lettered " Amerikaanischeu Roof-Vogel," of course 

 by mistake for " Afrikaanischen." 



