212 Birds. 



tween three and four feet high when erect, and is of a 

 bluish ash colour on the back and nearly white beneath ; 

 its tail is long, and has the two middle feathers much 

 longer than the others and nearly reaching to the ground ; 

 and the back of the head is adorned with a tuft of black 

 feathers, which the bird can raise at pleasure. It is 

 from this tuft that the bird has obtained his name ; the 

 Dutch colonists of the Cape of Good Hope fancied they 

 saw some resemblance in it to the pen of a clerk stuck 

 behind his ear, and accordingly called him the Secretary 

 Bird. Clerks and secretaries are no doubt useful per- 

 sonages in their way, and the Secretary Bird, although 

 he cannot take his pen from behind his ear, finds abund- 

 ance of work to do, although of a kind very different 

 from the peaceful labours of his namesakes. He is the 

 great destroyer of the snakes and other reptiles which 

 swarm in many parts of Southern Africa, and which, but 

 for him, would increase in numbers so as to become a 

 positive nuisance. And here we may call our young 

 readers to admire the wonderful manner in which the 

 structure of a hawk has been modified by the hand of 

 the Creator to suit it for a particular mode of life. As 

 the bird advances to attack a snake his long legs, pro- 

 tected by hard horny scales, elevate his body to a con- 

 siderable height above the ground, thus giving him an 

 advantageous position, and at the same time enabling it 

 to move with great speed. One of the large and power- 

 ful wings, armed at the end with a strong spur, is 

 raised a little from the body and held forward like a 

 shield, but constantly shaken, as if to distract the atten- 

 tion of the foe, and thus, like a skilful boxer sparring up 

 to his antagonist,' the Secretary makes his way towards 

 his intended prey. As he approaches he watches for 

 the moment when the snake is about to spring upon 

 him ; a single blow from the spurred wing is usually 

 sufficient to lay the reptile writhing in the ground in a 

 helpless state ; it is then soon despatched and as speedily 

 swallowed. Some idea of the quantity of reptiles de- 

 stroyed by this bird may be gained from Le Vaillant's 

 statement, that the crop of one of them examined by 

 him contained eleven lizards, three snakes as long as a 



