FAMILY GYPOGERANIDJE ; SECRETARY. 417 



constitutes the last group of the Diurnal Birds of Prey. This, as 

 already stated ( 364), includes but a single genus, the Secre- 

 tary Falcon or Vulture ; of which there are probably several 

 species, differing but very slightly from each other. In its 

 general characters, the Secretary approaches some of the 

 Falconidae, especially those species which feed upon reptiles 

 ($ 364) ; thus its beak is short and abruptly hooked, and its 

 legs are clothed with feathers much lower down than in the 

 Vultures; to which, also, it has little resemblance in phy- 

 siognomy. The Secretary was so called by the Dutch, from the 

 plumes at the back of its head ; which reminded them of the 

 pen stuck behind the ear, according to the custom of writing- 

 clerks. The remarkable feature in its structure, by which it is 

 distinguished from all other Raptores, is the extraordinary length 

 of its tarsi, which raise its body above the ground, in the manner 

 of that of the Wading Birds. This conformation adapts it to its 

 peculiar instincts; which lead it to prey upon Serpents and 

 other poisonous reptiles, in search of which it strides over the 

 dry open plains frequented by them. It is further armed with 

 spurs on the elbow-joints of the wings ; and these are efficient 

 organs of defence, by which it parries the attempts made by its 

 prey to wound it by its venomous bite, and by successive blows 

 of which it weakens its foe, destroying it at last by a stroke 

 of its bill, that splits open its enemy's skull. Le Vaillant men- 

 tions, that having killed a Secretary, which he had seen to 

 vanquish a Serpent, he found in its crop eleven rather large 

 lizards, three serpents of an arrcTs length, and eleven small 

 tortoises very entire, all of which had received the stroke on 

 the head ; as well as a number of locusts, beetles, and other 

 insects, very little injured. Besides these, the crop contained 

 a species of pellet, formed of the undigested bones, scales, &c., 

 of the animals previously devoured by the Secretary ; which was 

 destined no doubt to be ejected by the mouth, in the manner 

 common to other Birds of Prey. The species inhabiting Southern 

 Africa, which is the one whose habits are best known, builds its 

 nest on high trees, or in dense thickets ; and is not at all dis- 

 posed to associate with its fellows. Another Secretary, which 



