166 TOTIPALMATE SWIMMERS - STEGANOPODES. 



the Phalacrocorax per spicillatus does not occur on the islands at present. The natives, however, 

 remember very well the time when it was plentiful on the rocks, especially on the outlying islet, 

 Are-Kamen. About thirty years ago, they say, the last ones were seen ; and the reason they give 

 why this bird has become exterminated here on the island is, that it was killed in great numbers 

 for food. They unanimously assert that it has not been seen since; and they only laughed when 

 I offered a very high reward for a specimen." 



We know of only three e.xamples of this bird in museums — one in St. Petersburg, one in the 

 British Museum, and one in Ley den. 



Family PLOTID^. — The Anhingas. 



Char. Bill slender, pointed, compressed, and very Heron-like in shape, the 

 culmen and commissure almost straight, the gonys slightly ascending ; terminal 

 half of the tomia finely serrated, the serrations directed backward, and forming 

 a series of close-set, sharp-pointed, fine bristly teeth ; nostrils obliterated. Head 

 small, neck slender and greatly elongated (nearly as long as the wing) ; outer 

 toe about as long as the middle, or slightly shorter. Tail very long, fan-shaped, 

 rounded, the feathers widened toward the ends, the outer webs of the intermedise 

 in fully adult birds transversely corrugated or " fluted." 



This singular family consists of but one genus, Plotus, which has a representative 

 in the warmer parts of each of the great divisions of the earth. 



Genus PLOTUS, Linnaeus. 

 Plotus, Linn. S. N. L 1766, 218 (type, P. anhinga, Linn.). 



Char. The same as those of the family (see above). 



Only one species of this genus occurs in America. This is represented in Africa by the P. 

 Levaillanfii, Light. ; in India by P. melanogastcr, Gmel. ; and in Australia hy P. no vw-hollandiw, 

 Gould. They all closely resemble P. anhinga, but are quite distinct. 



Flotus anhinga. 



THE AMERICAN ANHINGA; SNAKE-BIRD. 



PlolHs anhinga, LiNX. 8. X. I. 1766, 580. — Nutt. Man. IL 1834, 507. — Bonap. Consp. II. 1855, 

 180. — AuD. Orn. Biog. IV. 1838, 136 ; Synop. 1839, 306 ; B. Am. VI: 1843, 443, pi. 420. — 

 Lawr. in Baird's B. N. Am. 1858, 883. — Baird, Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no. 628. — Coues, 

 Key, 1872, 306 ; Check List, 1873, no. 536 ; 2d ed. 1882, no. 760. — Eidgw. Nom. N. Am. B. 

 1881, no. 649. 



PlotJis melanognstcr, "WiLs. Am. Orn. IX. 1824, 79, 82, pi. 74 (not of Gmel.). 



Hab. Tropical and Subtropical America ; Gulf States and Lower Mississii?])! Valley, north to 

 the mouth of the Ohio. 



Sp. Char. Adult male, in full breeding-plumage: Plumage of the neck and body deep glossy 

 black, with a faint greenish gloss ; scapulars and lesser wing-coverts marked centrally (longitudin- 

 ally) with light lioary ash, tliese markings elliptical on the upper part of the scapular region, linear 

 or nearly acicular on the longer scapulars, and broadly ovate on the wing-coverts ; exposed surface 

 of the middle and greater wing-coverts light hoary ash ; remainder of the wings, with the tail, 

 deep black, the latter less glossy, and broadly tipped witli pale brown, passing into dirty whitish 



