TRAVELS I N 
very far within the country. But on the wed, 
though that part of x^frica has deferts ftill more 
parched than any on the eaftern fide, and of 
courfe affords the different kinds of food fuited 
to it, I have feen it no where beyond the 
country of the Greater Nimiquas. I ffiall fay 
but one word more on this interefting creature. 
Its bill is not gallinaceous, as Vofmaer fays'^, 
but that of a rapacious bird : and it has not, 
as Buftbn fays, the leg bare of feathers like 
thofe of a fli ore-bird. For the reft I refer to 
my Orpiithology, where I fliall give a more 
minute account of the fecret^ry, 
Thefe particulars refpeding a very intereft^ 
ing bird, I am perfuaded, will fufficiently juf- 
tify the motives that induced me to give its 
name to the fpring near which we encamped. 
We fpent the night there. The next day four 
favages, coming to it to drink, recolleded my 
guides, with whom they were acquainted, and 
invited me to their horde, which they faid was 
* "We have not Vofmaer, but we apprehend Vaillant 
confounds him here with Sonnerat. BufFon fays : " Son- 
" nerat is miftaken vAitn he reckons the bill of the fecre- 
*' tary gallinaceous ; which is the more ftrange, as that na-? 
" turahft remarks that the bird itfelf is carnivorous*' 
33ufF. Birds, vol. vii. p. 322. Smellie's Tranll. T. 
but 
