402 SEEPENTAEIID^ SERPENTAEIUS 



on the sand and an Osprey wheeling about just over head pounced 

 down within four or five yards of us and bore off one of our heaviest 

 fishes. It is a bird of strong flight and with its long sickle-shaped 

 wing can instantaneously alter its course. I have met with it both 

 in summer and winter." 



Mr. Gordge, above mentioned, believes that it builds in the high 

 cliffs near Durban, but no definite account of its breeding in South 

 Africa has been given. 



Family IV. SBRPENTARIID^. 



Skull with desmognathous palate and well-developed basiptery- 

 goid processes (see fig. 5, p. 5) ; ambiens, accessory femoro-caudal, 

 semi-tendinosus, and accessory semi-tendinosus muscles all present ; 

 plantar tendons and oil gland as in the Falconidce; after-shaft to 

 contour feathers present ; both the inner and outer toe connected 

 with the middle one by a strong basal web. 



This family contains only the single species here described. 



Genus I. SERPENTARIUS. 



Type. 

 Serpentarius, Cuvier, Tabl Elem. d'Eist. Nat. p. 



254 (1790) S. secretarius. 



Beak with a rounded culmen and strong hook but not so 

 powerful as in other Accipitrine birds; cere narrow with oval 

 nostrils ; a considerable bare patch on the side of the face round 

 the eye ; a crest of elongated occipital feathers. Legs very long, the 

 tarso-metatarsus about half the length of the wings ; a strong and 

 well developed basal web between the three front toes ; tail of twelve 

 feathers, the two central ones elongated, the outer ones graduated. 



This genus contains one recent species only, spread over the 

 greater part of Africa ; another fossil form has been described by 

 M. Milne Edwards from lower miocene deposits in France. 



563. Serpentarius secretarius. Secretary Bird. 



De Sagittarius, Vosmaer, Beschryving van eenen Afrikaansehen Boof- 



vogel, pp. 1, 8, pi. 8 (1769). 

 Falco serpentarius, Sparrman, Besa till Goda Hojips-udden, p. 160 



(1783); id. English Translaiion, 8i;o ed. i, p. 162 (1785). 



