AVES—VULTURE. 429 
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Tuts curious bird resembles the common falcon in its head, bill, and claws, 
but its legs are so long that, when it stands upright, it is not much unlike 
the crane. After much hesitation, modern naturalists have arranged it in 
the vulture order. When standing erect, it measures about three feet from 
the top of the head to the ground. Itis a native of the interior of Africa, 
Asia, and the Philippine Islands. The general color of the plumage is a 
bluish ash ; the tips of the wings, the thighs, and the vent inclining to black. 
On the back of the head are several long dark colored feathers, hanging 
down behind, and capable of being erected at pleasure. This crest induced 
the Dutch colonists at the Cape to give it the name of the secretary; the 
Hottentots, however, style it the serpent eater, from the avidity with which 
it catches and devours those noxious reptiles. The manner in which it 
seizes them, displays great intelligence. On approaching them, it carries 
forward the point of one of its wings, in order to parry their venomous bites, 
and waits till it finds an opportunity of spurning or treading on its adversary, 
or taking him on his pinions, and throwing him into the air. When he has 
at last thus wearied him out, he kills and devours him at his leisure. 
1 Gypogeranus serpentarius, Temm. This is the only individual of the genus. _ Its 
characteristics are—bill shorter than the head, thick, strong, hooked, bent from its origin, 
furnished with a cere at its base, a little arched, compressed at the point; nostrils a little 
' separated at the base, lateral, pierced in the cere, diagonal, oblong, open; legs very long, 
slender ; tibia feathered; tarsus long, slenderer at its base than at its upper part; toes 
short, warty below, the anterior united at the base; thumb articulated on the tarsus 
Me long the first five wing feathers longest and almost equal; wéitgs armed with: 
urt sp ir. 
