SECRETARY-VULTURE. 263 



Western Africa there is a rather smaller race, with a relatively longer and more 

 slender beak, which has been regarded as indicating a distinct species. Compared 

 with the Egyptian vulture, Mr. Blanford observes that the present species is " far 

 more vulturine both in its flight and food. Numbers usually collect around a 

 carcase, which is very rarely, if ever, the case with N. percnopterus. The difference 

 is best shown in the fact that both Europeans and Eastern people frequently speak 

 of N. percnopterus as a kite, whilst no one could ever consider N. pileatus as any- 

 thing else than a vulture." The species is very common on the shores of Annesley 

 Bay, but is less numerous in the Abyssinian highlands. 



The Secretary- Vulture. 

 Family Serpentariid^. 



The well-known, but nevertheless very remarkable African bird {Serpentarius 

 secretarius), represented in the figure on p. 264, differs so widely from all 

 other Accipitrines in external appearance that an ordinary observer might have 

 considerable hesitation in referring it to the same order. Doubts have, indeed, 

 been entertained by some ornithologists as to its right to be included in the 

 Accipitrines ; but it appears, on the whole, to be allied to the vultures, next to which 

 it is placed, as the representative of a distinct family. Needless to say, the secretary 

 derives its name from the crest of long plumes rising from the back of its head, 

 which have suggested a fanciful resemblance to a man with a bunch of quill 

 feathers stuck behind his ear. Structurally, the secretary-vulture differs from all 

 other members of the order by the great elongation of the tibia and metatarsus, 

 which give it somewhat of the appearance of a crane with an eagle's beak ; and it 

 is also distinguished from the members of the two foregoing families by having 

 basipterygoid processes on the rostrum of the skull, and its tufted oil-gland. It 

 resembles both groups, however, in having the two nostrils separated by a median 

 partition, and by the presence of a syrinx, or organ of voice, at the lower part of 

 its windpipe. Its short-toed feet resemble those of the caracaras in having the 

 three front toes joined by short webs at their bases. 



In addition to the crest of plumes at the back of the head and its lanky limbs, 

 the secretary is characterised by the great prolongation of the two middle feathers 

 of the tail, which communicate an almost unique appearance. When adult, the 

 bird will somewhat exceed 4 feet in height, while the length of the tail is just 

 under 2 feet. The prevailing hue of the plumage is a delicate pearly grey, with 

 the quills and primary coverts black, and the crest-feathers either grey tipped with 

 black, or wholly black. The upper tail-coverts are white ; and of the tail-feathers 

 the long middle pair have white tips preceded by a broad black band, but are 

 elsewhere pure grey, while the others are darker grey, with white tips and two 

 blackish bars. On the under-parts the breast and under wing-coverts are white, 

 with a faint ashy tinge, the thighs and abdomen black, and the under tail-coverts 

 white. The iris is grey, and the leg and foot yellowish. The existing secretary- 

 vulture ranges over the whole of South Africa, and extends along the eastern 

 side of the Continent to the Sudan and Abyssinia ; while on the west coast it is 



