SECRETARY BIRDS 
With dignified, swaggering gait, pairs of gray secretary birds stalk the 
arid hills and plains of South Africa, seeking reptiles and other food. 
Known by the Dutch as slangenvreeters (snake-eaters), they are prized by 
Boer farmers because of their constant warfare against snakes; although 
some question their value, believing that they also prey on game birds and 
antelopes. In some localities they are domesticated for use in eliminating 
insects, rats, lizards, tortoises and snails. 
About four feet in height, the secretary bird resembles nothing so much 
as a grayish-blue rooster wearing a short pair of black trousers and stand¬ 
ing on a long pair of stilts. It is also characterized as a “crane with an 
eagle’s beak.” 
This snake-eater’s original name was Sagittarius , or archer, given it 
because of its striding gait, which resembles that of a bowman advancing 
to shoot. This name was later changed to secretarius, having reference to 
the quill pens stuck behind the ears of Victorian clerks which gave a fancied 
resemblance to this bird. 
In attacking snakes, this bird fights with its powerful feet while the 
stiff feathers of the outstretched wings help the bird balance as its dances 
around its victim. It recoils after each pounding foot blow, and this fact, 
as well as the length of its legs, enables it to elude the snake’s teeth. If the 
snake does succeed in biting a feather, the bird pulls it out at once. Occa¬ 
sionally a poisonous snake is able to inflict mortal injury, but that does 
not prevent thousands of serpents from being devoured each year by their 
feathered enemies. Snake-eaters have been known to fly high in the air with 
a snake wriggling in their beaks, dropping the prey to the ground to kill it. 
When a pair of secretary birds mate and establish themselves in a 
locality, they drive all others of their kind away. They confine themselves 
to one region and occupy the same nest for a long period. The nest is a 
huge structure of sticks, mud and dried grass, usually situated in a low 
bush or mimosa tree. Yearly additions are made to the nest. Some observers 
have reported nests lined with hair, feathers and wool. Two or three dull 
78 
