SUB-FAMILY. 



SERPENTARIIN^, or SECRETARIES. 

 Genus SEEPENTAEIUS fCiivier.J 



SERPENT ARIUS REPTILIVORUS (Daudin.) 



SECRETARY SERPENT-EATER. 



The Secretary-bird, as this species is frequently called, 

 exhibits an affinity to the Grallatorial family, and especially to 

 the Cariama of tropical America — which is not to be found in 

 any other true Eaptorial genus, and to which allusion has been 

 already made in a preceding page. This affinity is chiefly 

 apparent in the length of the legs in this species and in its 

 great speed in running, as well as in its predilection for that 

 mode of escape, when pui'sued or alarmed. With the exception 

 of the length of the legs, the skeleton of this singular bird 

 appears principally to indicate an affinity to the Yultures, 

 while in the bare skin about the eye and cere, and also in 

 some of its habits, it seems to approximate to some of the 

 American Polyborince, which, like it (though in a minor degree), 

 are both addicted to the destruction of reptiles, and are also 

 possessed of much facility in running. The Secretary is an 

 inhabitant of the continent of Afi-ica, to which it appears to be 

 entii-ely confined, as although Sonnioi, the traveller and 

 natiu'alist of the last centmy, figvu'ed a Secretary bird as 

 foimd by him in the Philippine Islands, there seems to be 

 no doubt that this is an error, no such bii-d ha\'ing been 

 observed in that locality by any subsequent traveller. In 

 "Western Africa, the only locality in which the Secretary 

 has been observed (so far as I can ascertain) is the A^cinity 

 of the river Gambia, but in the southern and eastern parts of 



