Fossils referred to this Family are met with in North and South America.[[124]]
The points wherein the Cathartae differ from the Accipitres having been already noticed (p. [137]), it only remains to discuss in detail the several families comprised in the latter Sub-Order.
Fig. 38.–Secretary-Bird. Serpentarius secretarius. × ⅑.
Fam. II. Serpentariidae.–This contains only Serpentarius secretarius, the African Secretary-Bird–now generally recognised as an Accipitrine form–which is most common in the south, though extending northwards to the Gambia, Khartum, and Abyssinia. It was first accurately made known in 1769, from an example living in the menagerie of the Prince of Orange, by Vosmaer, who was told that at the Cape of Good Hope it was called "Sagittarius," or Archer, from its habit of striding like a bowman about to shoot, and that this name had been corrupted into "Secretarius." Subsequently–about 1770–a pair was brought alive to England.[[125]] The appellation is evidently, however, derived from the nuchal tuft, which bears a fancied resemblance to the pen of a clerk stuck above his ear. Standing some four feet high on very long legs, this bird gives the impression of a Heron or Crane, and is a striking object on its native plains. The short strong beak is greatly arched, and is not toothed, the neck is elongated, the body comparatively small, and the metatarsus boldly scutellated all round, the short straight toes with their blunt claws being joined anteriorly by small membranes. The ample wings have eleven pointed primaries and seventeen secondaries; the graduated tail of twelve rectrices has the two obtuse median feathers drooping and much prolonged. Down is evenly distributed over the adults, and an aftershaft is present. The general colour is bluish-grey, with black wing-quills, lower back and vent; the loose pendent crest on the occiput and nape contains ten plumes in pairs, the longer being black and the shorter grey with black ends; the tail is grey, subterminally barred with black and tipped with white, which sometimes shews on the short close flank-feathers. The long cere, naked sides of the face, and feet are yellow, the irides hazel. The sexes are similar.
In South Africa these useful birds–favoured by a protecting law–are often brought up tame about the homesteads, where they kill reptiles and keep off feathered intruders, though they occasionally tax the poultry-yard themselves; the food consists of small mammals, birds, lizards, and tortoises, but above all of snakes and insects. When the Secretary attacks a reptile, it advances on foot and delivers a forward kick with its powerful leg, striking simultaneously with the knobbed wings, which shield its body; then it retreats with a bound, as the hissing snake makes a vicious lunge; but soon, watching its opportunity, breaks through its opponent's guard and stands triumphant with crest erect, before swallowing the disabled foe.[[126]] If, however, the snake touches the bird's flesh, the result is reversed; and so well, according to Mr. Atmore,[[127]] does the latter know this, that it plucks out instantly any feather that the fangs have reached. Possibly reptiles are occasionally killed by being carried aloft and dropped. Usually seen stalking easily along, this graceful species can almost out-pace a horseman, while it will fly when hard pressed, or soar to a considerable height. The huge nest, occupied from year to year, is placed in a bush or tree, and is composed of sticks and clay with a lining of wool and hair, the two or three eggs being white with rusty markings. In six weeks the downy white young are hatched, which remain some four months in the nest, often uttering a harsh cry. The legs of both nestlings and adults are very fragile, and snap if they trip while running.
A fossil form (S. robustus) has been recorded from the Lower Miocene of Allier in France.
Fam. III. Vulturidae.–The Old-World Vultures have a strong hooked bill–exceptionally slender in Neophron–which may be sinuate, but has no tooth. They possess a horny cere; a comparatively short, stout, reticulated metatarsus, often partly feathered; scutellated toes on a level, with bluntish slightly curved claws, and a short membrane between the outer and mid digits. They lack the bony ridge found over the eye in the Falconidae. The somewhat pointed wings are long and broad, with eleven primaries and from seventeen to twenty-five secondaries; the moderate tail, ordinarily of twelve feathers, is rounded, but varies to wedge-shaped in Neophron, where, as in Gyps, there are fourteen rectrices. The plumage is compact; the crop prominent; the head and neck are bare or sparsely-haired in Otogyps and Pseudogyps, more or less downy in Vultur, Lophogyps, and Gyps, and partly feathered in Neophron; while a ruff of down or plumes covers the shoulders. The nostrils are circular in Vultur, horizontally elongated in Neophron, oval and vertical elsewhere; the fleshy tongue may show bristly or upcurved margins, and the syrinx has two pairs of tracheo-bronchial muscles. Uniformly distributed down and an aftershaft characterize the adults, while the white woolly nestling of Gyps is said to be hatched naked.[[128]] Except as regards Neophron, the habits resemble those of the Cathartidae, the carrion diet producing a most offensive odour. The plumage of the sexes is the same.
Vultur monachus (cinereus), the Black Vulture, has its headquarters in the Mediterranean Region, whence it extends to the Gold Coast, Nubia, the Lower Danube, North India and China, and has strayed to Denmark. Not unlike the more sociable Griffon Vulture in general habits, it shows a preference for wooded country, constructing a bulky shallow nest of sticks, grass, and wool almost invariably on trees, and laying one, or rarely two, white eggs blotched with dark red. The plumage is brownish-black, with a ruff of lanceolate feathers below the bare neck, and black down on the crown and throat. The naked skin and cere are of a livid flesh-colour, the feet yellowish; the bill is black, the iris brown. Lophogyps occipitalis, of East and South Africa and Senegal, is dark brown with blacker remiges and rectrices, and some white on the wings; the reddish head and neck are bare, except for white down on the crown, which thickens towards the occiput; the ruff is brown, the abdomen and crop are white, the feet pinkish; the bill is orange with bluish cere, the iris brown. Otogyps auricularis, of North-East and South Africa, called the "Eared Vulture" from the fleshy lappets (of the same pinkish colour as the naked head, cere, and feet) on the sides of the neck, is brown, with blackish wings and tail, varied by white down on the thighs and chest; a brown ruff covers the hind-neck, while the bill and irides are yellow. O. calvus, the smaller Pondicherry- or King-Vulture of India, Burma, and Siam, is black. These birds usually hunt in pairs, driving all intruders except Eagles from their prey: they construct immense stick nests, often used in successive years, on thick bushes or trees; straw, leaves, and the like being added for lining, and one white egg, often with red-brown markings, deposited. Gyps fulvus, the Griffon Vulture, which has occurred in Germany, Poland, and once in Britain, breeds from the Spanish Pyrenees through Southern Europe and Northern Africa, reaching lat. 50° N. in Russia, and extending eastward to North India, by way of Turkestan, where it overlaps the larger form G. himalayensis. It is fawn-brown above and streaky buff below, with nearly black wings and tail, the adults having a downy white ruff, represented in the young by a brown collar; the head is thinly covered with white hairs, the beak is horn-coloured with blue-black cere, the feet are plumbeous, the irides orange. This active though cowardly species is often seen basking on rocks at mid-day; it flies or hovers with easy movements, and can soar until it almost disappears in the sky. It has a growling note. The nest, a mass of sticks and grass of variable size, is placed on cliffs, and contains one or even two white eggs, sometimes with rusty markings. Incubation lasts forty days, the young remaining three months in the nest. G. kolbi of South Africa is much paler; G. rüppelli, of the north-east and south of that continent, has a yellower head and browner back; G. indicus of India and the Indo-Malay mainland; from which G. pallescens is hardly separable, has a barer head and comparatively thin bill; the former breeds in trees in place of rocks. Pseudogyps bengalensis, the White-backed Vulture, ranging through India and down the Malay Peninsula, is black above, but brownish below, with the thin downy ruff and lower back white; the bill is greyish, the cere, feet, naked head and neck are black, the irides brown. This bird snorts, hisses, or even roars, and walks easily, though awkwardly. It nests in company on trees, and often lines the large stick-fabric with foliage, as do so many other Raptorial forms; the greenish-white eggs, seldom marked with red, vary much in bulk. P. africanus, of North-East and West Africa, is decidedly browner.
The genus Neophron contains the smallest Vultures, N. percnopterus being called, from its frequent occurrence on Egyptian hieroglyphs, the Egyptian Vulture or Pharaoh's Hen. It has wandered thrice to Britain and also to North Europe, while it breeds from Savoy and Provence to Madeira, the Canaries, the Cape Verds, North Africa, and India, meeting in the last-named the smaller N. ginginianus; in winter it visits South Africa, where it is called the "White Crow." The plumage is white, with black primaries and partially brown secondaries; a ruff of lanceolate feathers extends up to the occiput, the naked head and neck are yellow, the tip of the bill alone being black; the feet are pink, the irides crimson. Often seen striding sedately along in search of animal and vegetable refuse or dung, this species also follows the plough and devours worms, grubs, insects, reptiles, and frogs; while from its alleged habit of breaking bones left by other Vultures, it is called Quebranta-huesos or "bone-smasher" by the Spaniards.[[129]] The flight is slow and easy, the voice a croak. The flat nest of sticks, lined with soft materials, and especially rags, is placed on a crag or tree, and contains two white eggs with red-brown or claret blotches. N. pileatus of South Africa–which has a larger north-eastern and western form–is brown, with black wings and tail, downy whitish nape, purplish naked areas, dusky bill and feet, and brown irides.