THE SECRETARY BIRD.

Gypogeranus serpentarius. Illig.

The singular conformation of this bird, so different in many respects from that of the Order to which both in its leading characters and in its habits it obviously belongs, rendered it for a long time one of the torments of ornithologists, who puzzled themselves in vain to assign it a definitive place in the system, and could not agree even with regard to the grand division of the class to which it ought to be referred. Thus M. Temminck was at one time inclined to refer it to the Gallinaceous Order; and M. Vieillot, after repeatedly changing his mind upon the subject, at last arranged it among the Waders, with which it has absolutely nothing in common[210] except the length of its legs. It appears, however, to be now almost universally admitted that its closest affinity is with the Vultures, with which it agrees in the most essential particulars of its organization, and from which it differs chiefly in certain external characters alone, which unquestionably give to it an aspect exceedingly distinct, but are not of themselves of sufficient importance to authorize its removal to a distant part of the classification. It constitutes in fact one of those mixed and aberrant forms by means of which the arbitrary divisions of natural objects established by man are so frequently assimilated to each other in the most beautiful, and occasionally in the most unexpected, manner.

The principal generic characters of the Secretary consist in the form of his 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 form his most striking characteristic in an Order remarkable for a structure exactly the reverse; and in the shortness of his toes, which are terminated by blunted talons of little comparative size or curvature. The only known species measures upwards of three feet in length. Its plumage, when in a perfect state, is for the most part of a bluish gray, 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 offers a mixture of black, red,[211] and white, the plumage of the legs being of a bright black, intermingled with scarcely perceptible brownish rays. The plumes of the crest which ornaments the back of the head, and from the supposed 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 gray. 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.

In his habits he partly resembles both the Eagle and the Vulture, but differs from them most completely in the nature of his prey and in his mode of attacking it. Like the former he always prefers live flesh to carrion; but the food to which he is most particularly attached consists of snakes and other reptiles, for the destruction of which he is admirably fitted by his organization. The length of his legs not only enables him to pursue these creatures over the sandy deserts which he inhabits with a speed proportioned to their own, but also places his more vulnerable parts in some measure above the risk of their venomous bite; and the imperfect character of his talons, when compared with those of other rapacious birds, is in complete accordance with the fact that his feet are destined rather to inflict powerful blows, than to seize and carry off his prey. When he falls upon a serpent, he first attacks it with the bony prominences of his wings, with one of which he belabours it, while he guards his body by the expansion of the other. He then seizes it by the tail and mounts with it to a considerable height in the air, from which he drops it to the[212] earth, and repeats this process until the reptile is either killed or wearied out; when he breaks open its skull by means of his beak, and tears it in pieces with the assistance of his claws, or, if not too large, swallows it entire.

Like the Eagles these birds live in pairs, and not in flocks; they build their aiery, if so it may be termed, on the loftiest trees, or, where these are wanting, in the most bushy and tufted thickets. They run with extreme swiftness, trusting, when pursued, rather to their legs than to their wings; and as they are generally met with in the open country, it is with difficulty that they can be approached sufficiently near for the sportsman to obtain a shot at them. They are natives of the south of Africa, and appear to be tolerably numerous in the neighbourhood of the Cape; where, it is said, they have been tamed to such a degree as to render them useful inmates of the poultry-yard, in which they not only destroy the snakes and rats which are too apt to intrude upon those precincts, but even contribute to the maintenance of peace among its more authentic inhabitants by interposing in their quarrels and separating the furious combatants who disturb it by their brawls.