AFRICAN SNAKE-EATER. 4? 



considered as belonging to the genus Falco, and 

 has accordingly been so placed in the Gmelinian 

 edition of the Systema Naturae of Linnaeus. The 

 peculiarity of its appearance however is sufficient 

 to justify its being considered as forming a separate 

 genus, allied both to that of Vultur and Falco, 

 but most nearly to the former. 



"This bird, says the judicious Edwards, is of a 

 new genus, and the only species of it hitherto 

 come to my knowledge. It is about the bigness 

 of the Heron and Crane kind, except that the neck 

 is a little longer. On first view, I judged it to be 

 no wader in the water, for though the legs are as 

 long, or longer than in Herons, &c. yet they are 

 feathered down to the knees, which we do not find 

 in birds who wade in shallow waters to seek their 

 food: the toes of this bird are also much shorter 

 than they are in Herons; so that I think it must 

 be placed amongst land birds. The bill is exactly 

 like those of Hawks and other birds of prey; which 

 is the only instance I have discovered in any of 

 the long-legged kind of birds : the talons or claws 

 are small, and unfit for a bird of prey, and the eyes 

 are of a dark colour, placed in the spaces covered 

 with a bare skin of an orange-colour, on eacli side 

 the head." 



The Count de Buffon places it in company with 

 the Herons, the Jabiru, the Palamedea, and the 

 rest of the larger kind of waders, and the inge- 

 nious Monsieur Sonnini follows the same arrange- 

 ment. 



The most accurate description of the Snake- 



