eggs; and, as in the case of the seriema, the young remain in the nest for a great length of time, being quite helpless at three or four months of age. Many of them have been reared as pets, and in some localities are useful in destroying vermin about the premises.
Fig. 6.—The Secretary Bird (Gypogeranus serpentarius).
Gypogeranus lives chiefly upon reptiles and insects, and in nature will kill and devour the most venomous species of snakes. A great deal has been written about this last-named habit, and it is the one which has given the bird its popular notoriety. When it meets a big snake of the most venomous variety it will at once advance upon it with stately strides and commence the attack. It will strike the reptile with its knobbed wings and kick forward at it with its feet, until its victim is completely worn out by its fruitless attempts to withstand such an onset, whereupon the merciless victor pounces upon it, crushes its head with a blow from its powerful beak, and at once proceeds to devour its prey. These heron-like falcons are distributed over the greater part of Africa,[1]
Speaking of the herons, and while we are still in Africa, I desire to call attention to two other strange outliers, both of which are found in that country.
- ↑ They doubtless represent a type which, little modified in time, has descended from some generalized ancestor, long since extinct, and from which not only the Accipitres (falcons and their kin), the storks, and herons have been derived, but also the seriema. Gypogeranus should be retained in the suborder Accipitres as a superfamily—Gypogeranoidea.
