730 



SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — STEGANOPODES. 



but dive for and pursue under water like cormorants and loons. The eggs are three or four, 

 pale bluish, \^ath white chalky incrustation. There are only three or four species : the 

 African P. lemillanti ; the P. melanogaster of Southern Asia, with the Australian P. noca- 

 hollamlia, if distinct from the last; with the following: 



PLO'TUS. (Gr. TrXwTof, ])lotos, swimming well.) Darters. Character as above. 

 P. anhin'ga. (Portuguese anhina, Lat. anguina, snaky.) Darter. Anhinga. Snake- 

 bird. Water-turkey. ^ : Glossy greenish-black ; a broad silver gray wiug-band formed 

 by most of the coverts ; lower neck behind spotted, 'and scapulars and tertiaries striped 

 with silvery-gray; tail pale-tipped; filamentous feathers of neck purplish- ash. 9= with 

 parts of the head, neck, and back brown, the jugulum and breast fawn-color sharply 

 margined with rich brown. Bill yeUow, dusky-greenish on the ridge and tip ; sac orange ; 

 eye-space livid ; eye carmine ; feet dusky and yellow. Length about 36.00 ; extent nearly 

 4.00 feet ; wing 13.00-14.00 ; tail 10.00-11.00 ; bill 3.25 along culmen; tarsus 1.33. S. Atlantic 

 and Gulf States, common ; in summer to North Carolina, and up the Mississippi to lUinois and 

 Kansas ; New Mexico. Nest bulky, placed on trees and bushes over the water, of sticks, 

 leaves, roots, moss, etc. ; eggs 3-4, like cormorant eggs in color and texture, but narrow and 

 elongate, 2.60 X 1-25. Young with buff-colored or white wooUy down. Fed in the nest 

 by regurgitation, like cormorants. 



57. Family TACHYPETID^ 



Fig. 507. — Frigate, with Tropic Bird in tlie ilistance. (From Miclielet ; 



Frigates. 



Bill longer than the head, 

 epignathous, stout, straight, 

 wider than high at the base, 

 thence gradually compressed 

 to the strongly hooked extrem- 

 ity, where the under as well as 

 upper mandible is decurved. 

 Nostrils very small, linear, 

 almost entirely closed, in a 

 long narrow groove. Gular 

 sac small, but capable of con- 

 siderable distension. Wings 

 exceedingly long and pointed, 

 of about 34 remiges, of which 

 the 10 primaries are very pow- 

 erful, with stout quadrangular 

 shafts; upper and middle por- 

 tion of the wings greatly 

 lengthened. Tail very long, 

 deeply forked, of 12 strong 

 feathers. Feet exceedingly 

 small, the tarsus, in particu- 

 lar, extraordinarily short, feath- 

 ered ; webbing restricted, that 

 between inner and next toe 

 very slight; middle claw pec- 

 tinate. Bulk of body slight 

 compared with the great length 

 of the wings and tail. Here 

 only in this order is found the 



