244 TRAVELS IN 
which, iffLiing from the foot of fome rocks, 
and adorned with verdure along its banks, af- 
forded a pleafant fituation. 
Juil,as I arrived at the fpring, a fecretary 
was drinking at it. I fired, and killed it ; and 
from this circumftance I called the fpring Se- 
cretary -Fount ahi. 
The Dutch have given this bird the name of 
fscr eta-is (fecretary), on account of a bunch of 
quills behind its head ; for in Plolland, clerks, 
v/hen interrupted in tlieir writing, flick their 
pen in their hair behind the right ear, and 
to ti-is the tuft of the bird bears fome re- 
femblance. 
Bufion, fpeaking of the fecretary, fays, that 
it has not been long knovv^i at the Cape ; fince^^ 
he adds, neither Kolben, nor other writers 
after him, who have defcribed the produdions 
of that country, make any mention of it. This 
is adv:incing a falfe affertion, and proving it 
by another equally untrue. 
The fecretary is knov/n in the colonies both 
by the name oi fecretarls^ and by that idi Jiangs 
vreetcr, Kolben fpeaks of it under the latter 
appellation ; and he certainly knew it, at leaft 
from the report of others, fmce he gives an 
accurate 
