THE SECRETARY BIRD

Waipa Post, Volume 37, Issue 2227, 27 October 1928, Page 7

THE SECRETARY BIRD

THE SECRETARY BIRD AND THE SNAKE. This remarkable description of how the secretary bird disposes of venomous snakes comes from a farmer in Rhodesia: — Sitting in front of my hut, I saw a huge bird swoop down and land on the ground near me. He stood as high as a man’s breast. His long, pink, scraggy neck had no feathers, but long grey ones stuck straight lout behind him and touched tfae ground when he walked. Hfe looked for all the world like an old lawyer who, with his hands elapsed behind his coat-tails and his back bent, was thinking deeply. By that strange resemblance I was able to recognise him. He was a secretaiy bird. I watched him closely. For a little while he stalked around sedatlely, looking thoughtfully on the ground. Suddenly he sprang to attention, pecked the ground hard several times, and then began to stamp his feet and flap his wings. It looked as if he were marking tlime or doing physical jerks. Softly I crept on all fours to see what was happening, until I got close behind him. Then I discovered that he had found a large poisonous cobra and was, stamping it to death, flapping his wings meanwhile to keep his balance. When he had made sure the snake was dead he seized its head with his beak . and began to swallow it in gulps as a thrush swallows a worm. Unfortunately I had to cough, and that startled him. Looking round, he saw me close behind him, and at once he flew -off, carrying his victlim, half swallowed, in his beak. A funny object he looked, soaring away with a yard of snake hanging down. I have no doubt he was pleased with himself for catching such a titbit. v It wfould be a change from breakfasts of lizards and dinners of frogs and gi-ass hoppers. Although he looks so clumsy, he must be a clever bird to be bale to catch snakes like that and not get bitten. Because he is so good at it he is the most useful bird in South Africa, and the Government has made a wise law that he is to be protected. No one may shoot a secretary bird. He seems to know of that law, for as a rule he is not afraid of people.