. The bird, its form and function . ize the impos-sibility of such a short-legged bird preferring terrestriallife, but the legs of the Secretary are as long as those ofa crane, although in other respects the bird would passfor a very long-tailed species of hawk; it is really a hawkon stilts. However, there are reasons for supposing thatthe Secretary Bird may be, not a more or less recent off-shoot from the hawks, but a surviving type of old, olddays when there were no hawks and cranes and herons,but instead, a few strange birds which combined thecharacteristics of all these groups. The skilful
. The bird, its form and function . ize the impos-sibility of such a short-legged bird preferring terrestriallife, but the legs of the Secretary are as long as those ofa crane, although in other respects the bird would passfor a very long-tailed species of hawk; it is really a hawkon stilts. However, there are reasons for supposing thatthe Secretary Bird may be, not a more or less recent off-shoot from the hawks, but a surviving type of old, olddays when there were no hawks and cranes and herons,but instead, a few strange birds which combined thecharacteristics of all these groups. The skilful way in which the Secretary Bird brings itsfeet into play in the capture of serpents, of which it isvery fond, has been described as follows: Feet and Legs 379 When the snake strikes, the bird either evades theblow, by skipping to one side or the other, jumping back-ward, or springing into the air, or else, as frequently hap-pens, he simply receives the venomous thrusts of hisantagonist on the broad stiff feathers of the outer half. Fig. 297.—Secretary Bird. of the long wing, with which he knocks the reptile downrfollowing up the fall with a vigorous kick. His extremeagility enables him in a very short time to baffle andovercome a snake of four or five feet in length, whereuponhe finally seizes it near the head with his bill, and hold- 38o The Bird ing the body down with one foot, proceeds to swallow case a snake proves unusually hard to manage onthe ground the dauntless bird watches his opportunity,seizes his adversary close to the head, and, flying aloftto a considerable height, lets it drop on the hard ground,which is usually sufficient to prepare it for the finalceremony of swallowing.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1906
