THE SECRETARY. 121 



THE SECRETARY. 



IN THE COLLECTION OF Mr. CROSS, ROYAL MEWS. 



The bird which is known to the French ornithologists under the appellation of the Sagittaire, or 

 Falco Serpentarius, has, from the singularity of its conformation, been the source of considerable 

 difficulty in regard to the class to which it ought to be referred. M. Temminck classed it in the 

 gallinaceous order, whilst M. Vieillot arranged it amongst the waders, on account of its similarity to 

 that order, from the peculiar length and make of its legs. It is, however, now considered to possess 

 the greatest affinity with the vultures, as it agrees with them in the most essential particulars of its 

 organization, though differing in its external characters. 



Mr. Bennett, speaking of the generic characters of this singular bird, thus describes it: " They 

 consist in the form of the beak, which is shorter than the head, thick, and curved nearly from the 

 very base, where it is covered with a cere ; in the long and unequal feathers which take their origin 

 from the back of his head, and are susceptible of elevation and depression ; in the naked skin which 

 surrounds his eye, and which is shaded by a series of hairs in the form of an eyebrow; in the great 

 length and slenderness of his tarsi, which forms his most striking characteristic in an order remark- 

 able for a structure exactly the reverse, and in the shortness of his toes, which are terminated by 

 blunted talons of little comparative size and curvature. The only known species measures upwards 

 of three feet in length." Its plumage, when in a perfect state, which is far from being the case with 

 the subject from which our drawing is taken, is for the most part of a bluish grey, with a shade of 

 reddish-brown on the wings, the large quill feathers of which are black. The throat and breast are 

 nearly white, and the rest of the under surface of the body presents a mixture of red, black, and 

 white, the plumage of the legs being of a bright black, intermingled with scarcely perceptible 

 brownish rays. The plumes of the crest which ornament the back of the head, and from the sup- 

 posed resemblance of which to the pens frequently stuck behind the ears of clerks and other writers, 

 the name of secretary was given to the bird, are destitute of barbs at the base, but spread out as they 

 advance, and are coloured with a mixture of black and grey. Each of the wings is armed with three 

 rounded bony projections, with which, as well as with his feet, the bird attacks and destroys his 

 prey. 



Although the secretary in his habits resembles the eagle and the vulture, yet in the nature of its 

 prey it is wholly different, preferring live flesh to carrion, and his chief food consisting of snakes and 

 reptiles, for the caption and destruction of which its oganization is peculiarly adapted. It runs with 

 amazing swiftness, and trusts more to its legs than to its wings for its escape from the pursuit of the 

 hunter. It is a native of the south of Africa, and is tolerably numerous in the vicinity of the Cape, 

 where it has been rendered so tame as to be an inmate of the poultry-yards, where it is kept for the 

 purpose of killing the snakes and rats, which are apt to intrude into their precincts. 



