14 



specimens of this bird, informs me that it is a rare species in 

 that colony, frequenting lands on which the grass has been 

 recently burnt, "stalking over the ground like a bustard," and 

 feeding on insects and small reptiles ; the male specimen sent 

 to T&e by Mr. Ayres (No. 1 in this scries) contained the 

 remains of a "blue-headed lizard " Another specimen dissected 

 by the same gentleman, contained " small cameleons and 

 lizards, swallowed whole." Dr. Alfred Brehm also found two 

 lizards in the crop of one killed by him in the Sudahn. 

 With regard to the singular flexibility of the joint connecting 

 the tibia and tarsus, to which I have already alluded, Mr. 

 Ayres remarks, "The legs of this bird bend backward at 

 the knee in an extraordinary mamier, very much as if they 

 were out of joint: whether the bird can bend them back at 

 pleasure I cannot say." 



Dr. Hartlaub, in his work on the Birds of "West Africa, 

 thus refers to this peculiarity : — " With Polyboroides typicits, 

 there exists, according to the communication of that expe- 

 rienced and reliable observer, Jules Verreaux, a very remark- 

 able fact, viz., that the tarsi in the knee-joint are moveable 

 towards the front from behind, a provision which, from the 

 facility it affords the bird for dl•a^ving up frogs out of the 

 marsh-holes by means of its talons, is of no httle service to it. 

 The exceedingly compressed toes of this species also enable 

 it to introduce its long tarsi into the narrow crevices of the 

 earth. Verreaux saw it twist and turn its legs in all dii-e- 

 ctions in capturing its prey in marshj^ places." 



Professor Owen, who has obligingly examined, at my 

 request, a skeleton of this bird, which I obtained from Natal 

 and which I have deposited in the British Museum, has 

 favoured me with the following remarks bearing upon this 

 subject: — " The peculiar power of reversing the ordinary posi- 

 tion of the metatarsus in Pohihoroides radiatus appears to 

 depend, not on any modification appreciable in the configura- 

 tion of the articular siu-faces of the tibia and metatarsal bone, 



