ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



685 



resemblance to a quill pen stuck over the ear of 

 a clerk. Vosmaer, however, who first described 

 the species in 1769, states that the bird was 

 known at the Cape of Good Hope as the Sagit- 

 tarius or Archer, from its long strides. Sagit- 

 tarius is said (but the idea seems far-fetched) to 

 have become corrupted to Seeretariiis ; hence 

 the origin of the very appropriate name ])erhaps 

 may be traced to accident, after all. 



The zoological status of the Secretary Bird 

 has occasioned a great deal of controversj'. By 

 various authors it has been placed in various 

 groups, from spoonbills to bustards. Many 

 modern authorities, however, admit its affinities 

 with the accipitrine birds, and place it in a sep- 

 arate sub-order of that group. While the Sec- 

 retary, at first glance, seems to be simplv a 

 long-legged hawk, very much specialized for 

 ground hunting, the fact that a fossil form of 

 the same genus is known from the Miocene of 

 France, suggests the possibility of the truth of 

 the tlieory advanced by Xewton, that the modern 

 bird has descended, little changed, from the an- 

 cient ancestors, not only of present-dav hawks. 

 but even of herons, storks and others. 



The peculiar degree of parallel development 

 found in the Secretary Bird and the seriemas. 

 (particularly Cariama cristata), is too marked 

 to escape notice. Both are aberrant forms of 

 v.ell-marked families (the seriemas being com- 



The right foot is slightly raised for the strike 



FIRST STROKE OF THE BEAK. 



eptile is seized and dropped so quickly a 



iiionly referred to the cranes) differing radical- 

 ly from the types, and yet approaching each 

 other in a most singular manner. Not the least 

 interesting of these resemblances is the sharp- 

 ened, raised condition of the inner talon of 

 each foot, which is found both in the Secre- 

 tary Bird and in the seriemas, not only in the 

 crested, as first made known by C. William 

 Beebe, but in the Burmeister as well. In each 

 ease, this specialized nail assists in holding the 

 |)rev during the process of tearing it with the 

 bill". 



The hunting and feeding habits of Serpen- 

 tarius are unusual. The killing is not done with 

 the beak, but with the feet. The power in the 

 long, sinewy leg-muscles is surprising. The bird 

 strikes a hammer-like, maiming blow, by rais- 

 ing the tarsus to a position at right angles to 

 the thigh, and bringing it down with great ve- 

 locity. In striking, both feet are used, neither 

 being given preference, although alternation is 

 not Jicrfect. The talons are drawn together 

 when the blow is started, straightened out while 

 in the air, and brought together slightly at the 

 instant of impact with the body of the victim, 

 so that the latter receives not only the force of 

 tlie blow, but the piercing of the sharp nails. 

 ^^'henever possible, the food is swallowed entire, 

 fur, scales and all; but if the animal should be 

 too large, it is eaten piecemeal, the fur. if pres- 



