Secretary Bird
the Serpentarius secretarius, from South Africa, a bird protected by the native and English authorities for the service it renders in destroying venomous serpents, which it kills SECRETARY BIRD by blows from its powerful feet and bill.
The secretary bird stands about four feet high; upper surface grayish-blue, shaded with reddish-brown on wing coverts; throat white, thighs black, tail feathers very long, black at base paling into gray, tipped with white; two long central feathers bluish-gray tipped with black and white. Crest of 10 feathers black or gray tipped with black. From the fancied re- SECRETION semblance of this crest to a pen behind a clerk's ear, the bird derived its specific Latin and popular English name.