508 WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



Floridas. It is also observed in Mexico, Cayenne, and 

 Brazil. No bird, in the situations and climates it inhabits, 

 can exhibit a more suspicious or sinister appearance than 

 the Anhinga. Its long and dark serpentine neck and small 

 head, vibrating backward and forward, presents entirely the 

 appearance of a snake, whether seen through the foliage of 

 a tree, or emerging from the still and sluggish stream in 

 which it often swims with the body wholly immersed to the 

 neck, and on being approached or startled even that is in- 

 stantly withdrawn, and sweeping beneath the flood in per- 

 fect silence, we at length see it again rise at a distance 

 which defies approach. 



The projecting limbs of trees suspended over these streams, 

 in the most retired situations, are the usual perches fre- 

 quented by the Darters when not engaged in fishing and div- 

 ing after their finny prey. Here they lurk in indolence and 

 solitude, occasionally sunning und dressing their plumage, 

 and like the patient Heron, they sometimes watch in silence 

 the approach of some ill-fated fish, on which they pounce 

 with accurate aim, swallowing the smaller ones at a single 

 gulp, and bringing out the larger to some stump or log 

 where they tear it up with their claws and devour it piece- 

 meal. When approached, they drop from their secret re- 

 treats or perches into the water with the utmost silence, 

 scarcely making more commotion in the stream than the 

 gliding of an eel. They usually build in low trees stretch- 

 ing over the water in their favorite swamps, lagoons, or riv- 

 ers, and sometimes select the retirement of islands. The 

 nest is made of sticks and coarse weeds, and the eggs, 

 probably 8 or more, are said to be of a sky blue color. They 

 are so attached to particular localities as to breed for a series 

 of years in the same tree. The young as well as the old, 

 if materially disturbed, drop from the nest into the stream 

 over which they are usually suspended, in perfect silence, 



