John Henry Gurney

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Raptorial Birds in the Norfolk and Norwich Museum John Henry Gurney

This historic book may have numerous typos or missing text. Not indexed. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1864. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... combat till one has been vanquished, and is compelled to abandon his claims to the disputed female, in favour of his more potent rivai. The iris of the Secretary is grey in the immature and hazel in the adult bird, the bare skin adjacent to it of a yellowish flesh-colour, often tinged with orange, the cere yellow. The legs and feet are of a pale dull flesh colour, some times inclining to yellow. The eye in this species is remarkble for the thick row of eyelashes with which it is fringed. It is singular that no very satisfactory figure of this well known species has yet been published; the best with which I am acquainted is that in Le Vaillant's " Oiseaux D'Afrique," pi. 25. There is also a tolerable representation of it in Lesson's "Traite D'Ornithologie," pi. 3; both these figures represent adult specimens. An interesting illustration of the mode in which the Secretary carries a disabled serpent will be found in Harris' "Game Animals of Southern Africa," pi. 25. Figures of the head and foot of the natural size are also given in Gray's Genera, pi. 11. SPECIMENS OF SERPENTARIUS SECRETARIUS. Skeleton j Natal (G) Mr. Ayres. Do. j North-East Africa... (G) Zoological Society. No. . adult... Gambia (G) United Service Museum. No. 2. J adult... Nubia (G) Mr. Verreaux. No. 3. S adult... Natal (G) Mr. Ayres. SUB-FAMILY. POLYBOROIDINJE or GYMNOGENES. Genus POLYBOKOIDES (Smith.) GYMNOGENYS (Lesson.) POLYBOKOIDES RADIATUS (Scopoli ) RADIATED GYMNOGENE. In the instance of the Gymnogenes, it seems necessary to treat a single genus as forming of itself alone a separate sub-family, a distinction which, even if it rested on no other foundation, might, perhaps, in this case be sufficiently justified by one peculiarity which occurs in this species, and in no other bird with w...