GYPOGEUA 



GYPOGEKANITS. 



1140 



as I h*ll presently show. I dull permit myself moreover to make 

 remark on what Buffon ha* written. According to him the Secretary 

 differ* from other bird* in its timid nature ; and it* timidity is even 

 uch, says he, that when attacked by iU enemies it has no other 

 resource for iU preservation excepting flight This is an error. 

 Thote who have been able to study this bird know that, living 

 especially on reptiles, it U continually at war with them ; that |W 

 seeks them everywhere, and attacks them courageously. For thin 

 assertion I cite the testimony of Querhoent, and bring forward in 

 proof of it the fact which I have witnessed. 



" lu descending from a mountain into a very deep bog (fondricre) 

 I perceived, nearly perpendicularly below me, a bird which raised and 

 lowered iteelf very rapidly, with very extraordinary motion*. 

 Although I well knew the Secretary, and had killed many of these 

 birds at Natal, it was impossible for me to recognise it in the vertical 

 situation in which I found myself, and I only suspected that it was one 

 from iU> bearing;. Having found means, by favour of some rocks, to 

 approach sufficiently near, noislessly and without being discovered, I 

 found that this bird was a Secretary combating a serpent. The fight 

 was very slurp on both sides, and the skill (la ruse) equal on the part 

 of each of the combatants. But the serpent, which perceived the 

 inequality of its strength, employed that adroit canning which is 

 attributed to it, in oruer to save itself by flight and regain its hole ; 

 while the bird, divining its intention, stopped it at once, and throwing 

 itself before the serpent by one spring cut off iU retreat. Wherever 

 the reptile essayed to escape there it always found its enemy. Then, 

 uniting skill with courage, it erected itself fiercely to intimidate the 

 bird, and presented, with a frightful bias, a menacing gape, inflamed 

 eyes, and a head swollen with rage and poison. 



" Sometimes this offensive resistance suspended hostilities for an 

 instant ; but the bird soon returned to the charge ; and covering its 

 body with one of its wings as with a shield, struck its enemy with the 

 other, with the bony protuberances of which I have already spoken, 

 and which, like small cluba, overpowered it the more surely, inasmuch 

 as it presented iUelf to the blows. In effect, I saw it reel and fall 

 extended: then the conqueror threw himself upon it to finish his 

 work ; and with one blow of the bill split its skull. 



"At this moment, having no further observations to make, I killed 

 it I found in its crop (for it has one, which nobody has stated), on 

 dissecting it, eleven rather large lizards, three serpents as long as one's 

 arm, eleven small tortoises very entire, many of which were about 

 two inches in diameter, and, finally, a quantity of locusts (sautcrelles) 

 and insects, the greater part of which were sufficiently whole to 

 deserve being collected and to be added to my specimens. The 

 lizards, the serpents, and the tortoises had all received the stroke of 

 the bill on the head. I observed besides, that independently of this 

 mass of aliments the craw (poche) of the animal contained a species 

 of pellet, as large as a goose's egg, and formed of the vertebrae of 

 serpents and lizards which the bird had devoured previously, scales of 

 small tortoises, and the wings, feet, and corselets of different Scarabai. 

 Doubtless when the undigested mass is become too large, the Secre- 

 tary, like other birds of prey, vomits it and gets rid of it It results 

 from the superabundant quantity of nourishment which this specimen 

 bad secured, that in attacking the serpent of the bog, it was not 

 hunger which had stimulated it to the combat, but the hatred and 

 antipathy which it bears to these reptiles. Such an aversion as this 

 is of an inappreciable advantage in a country where the temperature 

 wonderfully favours the multiplication of an infinity of noxious and 

 venomous animals. In this point of view the Secretary is one of 

 nature's real benefactions; and indeed its utility and the services 

 rendered by it are so well recognised at the Cape and in its neighbour- 

 hood, that the colonists and Hottentots respect it and do not kill it ; 

 herein imitating the Dutch, who do not kill the stork, and the 

 Egyptians, who never injure the ibis. 



" The Secretary i* easily tamed, and when domesticated, every kind 

 of nourishment, cooked or raw, agrees with it equally. If care be 

 taken to feed it well, it not only lives amicably and peaceably with 

 the poultry, but when it sees any dispute going on it runs to separate 

 the combatant* and to restore order. It is true that if it be permitted 

 to sufler from hunger, it provides for itself, and then falls without 

 scruple upon the ducklings and chicks. But this abuse of confidence, 

 if abuse of confidence it can be called, is nothing but the imperious 

 effect of want, and the pure and simple exercise of that necessity 

 which devote* the half of all that breathes to the appetite of the 

 other half. I have seen tame Secretaries at many house*. The eggs 

 ordinarily amount to from two to three, nearly as large as those of 

 a goo**, and white like those of a hen. The young remain a long; time 

 before they quit the nest, because their legs being long and slender, 

 they sustain themselves with difficulty. They may be observed, even* 

 up to the age of four month*, unable to progress except by leaning 

 on their heel* ; which gives them a strikingly clumsy and ungraceful 

 air. Nevertheless, a* their toe* are not so long nor their claws so 

 curved as the other bird* of prey, they walk with much more facility 

 than those. So that when they have attained the age of seven 

 months they may be seen to develop easy and graceful movements 

 which suit well with their noble beating. Buffon, quoting the Dutch 

 naturalist, says, that whan the latter was drawing his Secretary, the 

 curious bird came to look upon the paper with outstretched neck and 



upstanding crest, as if admiring it* likeness, Ac. Certainly the Secre- 

 tary is sufficiently interesting on account of iU instinct and natural 

 qualities, without requiring to be gifted by its historian with an 

 admiring taste for drawing and a sort of pride at seeing itself repre- 

 sented. If Voamaer's Secretary approached him, Htretching out its 

 neck and raising it* crest, it was, in my opinion, neither from curiosity 

 nor delight, but only from a sort of habit which is common to many 

 other birds. We know that the majority of them, when they are 

 familiar and domesticated, love to have their polls scratched ; that 

 this titillation seems to give them pleasure ; and that they present 

 themselves to the first comer and stretch out their neck to beg for this 

 service. We see this in Europe with reference to the peacock and 

 the parrakeet 



" The Secretary U found on all the arid plains in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Cape. I have found it in the east, on the whole line of 

 coast, in Caffroria, and even far inland. But in the west, although this 

 part of Africa presents deserts still more arid than those of the east, 

 and although it consequently offers to the bird the different s< < 

 food which are congenial to it, I have never met with one beyond the 

 country of the Great Namaquaa. I will add only one word on this 

 interesting animal : it has not the bill of a gallinaceous bin!, as 

 Vosmaer says it has ; but a true bill of a bird of prey. Nor has it, 

 as Buffon declares, the leg bare of feathers like the shore birds 

 (oiseaux de rivage). For the rest, I refer to my ' Ornithology,' where 

 I shall enter into greater details on the subject of the Secretary." (Le 

 Vaillant, ' Second Voyage dans I'lutoVifiir de 1'Afrique,' Ac., torn, ii.) 



M. Lesson quotes the account of Mr. Smith, wlio i. ! itrs that one 

 day he saw a Secretary take two or three turns on the wing at a little 

 distance from the place where he was. The bird soon Buttled, and 

 Mr. Smith saw that it was attentively examining an object near the 

 spot where it had descended. After approaching it with great precau- 

 tion the Secretary extended one of it< wings, which the bird con- 

 tinually agitated. Mr. Smith then i ;x larRc serpent raising 

 iU head, and appearing to wait the approach of the bird to <l:irt ii|*>n 

 it; but a quick blow of the wing soon laid it prostrate. The bird 

 appeared to wait for the serpent's, raisins itself, in order to repeat the 

 blow ; but this the serpent, it seems, did not attempt, and the Secre- 

 tary walking towards it, seized it with the feet and bill, and rose 

 perpendicularly into the air, whence the bird let the serpent fall on 

 the ground, so that it might be securely destroyed. 



Gmelin placed the Secretary at the bead of the genus Falco, imme- 

 diately after the genus Vultur. 



DumeYil, Temmiuck, De Blainville, Latreille, Vigors, and Illiger 

 place it in the order of Rapacious Birds. 



Baron I'uvier arranges the form among the Falcons. 



M. Vieillot places it among the (irallutnra. 



M. Lesson makes the third and lost family of his Diurnal Birds of 

 Prey consist of Oypogeranut ; the first consists of the Vulturidir, and 

 the second of the Palconida. 



Mr. Swainson makes the Secretary the third and last type of the 

 family Vulluridcc. 



Mr. Ogilby, at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London (July, 

 1835), observed that a Secretary (Gypogeranus] in Mr. Kendall's collec- 

 tion offered some peculiarities when compared with the common Cape 

 animal, which at first induced Mr. Ogilby to believe that it might be 

 a distinct species, and in this opinion he was in some degree confirmed 

 by Mr. Gould ; but he stated that a more attentive comparison of 

 specimens from both localities (Mr. Kendall's having been *.;,- 

 the Gambia), had considerably shaken his original opinion. Mr. Ogilby 

 remarked however that utill greater diAurenoe* are indicated by Son- 

 nerat in his figure and description of the Secretary of the Philippine 

 Island*, and which, as far as the former was aware, had not been 

 noticed by more recent naturalists. Whether or not the Secretaries 

 of these three localities, the Cape of Gocd Hope, the Gambia, and 

 the Philippines, may eventually turn out to be really distinct, or only 

 varieties of the same species, roust, he further remarked, be left for 

 future observation ; but, as it w.mM be at least useful to direct the 

 attention of travellers, collectors, snd zoologists to the subject, he 

 stated the principal marks which appeared to distinguish each, giving 

 them provisionally specific name* derived from the localities which 

 they respectively inhabit as follows : 



1. 0. Captnrii, with the plume of long cervical feathers commencing 

 upon the occiput, spreading irregularly over the upper port of the 

 neck, narrow throughout the greater part of their length, as if the 

 beard had been cut on each side close into the shaft of HIM quill, and 

 spreading only at the point. Inhabits the Cape of Good Hope. 



2. O. Gambieiuii, with the cervical crest commencing some distance 

 below the occiput, arranged in two regular series, one on each side of 

 the neck, with the intermediate space clear, and composed of lon^ 

 npatule-shaped feathers, much broader throughout than in the last 

 specie*, though similarly decreasing in width towards the root. In 

 both them species the two middle feathers of the toil are considerably 

 longer than the others. Inhabit* Senegambia. 



8. 0. Pkilipprnnt, with the cervical crest spread irregularly from 

 the occiput to the bottom of the neck, the longest feathers be-in 

 situated the lowest, which is just the reverse of what is obsen 

 O. Oambiauil, and with Ihr two exterior tail-feathers the longest, so 

 that the tail appear* forked This is apparent not only iu Sonnerat's 



