THE INDIAN SNAKE-BIRD 15 



Burma, and Ceylon. Notwithstanding its large size, 

 it is apt to be overlooked when in the water, because it 

 almost invariably swims with the body submerged, 

 showing only the upper neck above the surface. Every 

 now and again it completely disappears from view. 

 After remaining submerged for several seconds the head 

 reappears with a small fish projecting from the bill. 

 The fish is forthwith thrown a little way into the air, 

 and then caught and swallowed. This habit of tossing 

 food into the air preparatory to swallowing it occurs 

 in many long-billed species, and appears to be the most 

 expeditious method of getting food from the tip of an 

 elongated beak to the other extremity, where it is 

 seized by the muscular walls of the gullet and passed 

 onwards. 



The snake-bird is said sometimes to secure its quarry 

 by diving from a perch like a kingfisher. I have not 

 observed the bird behave thus, and the method does 

 not appear to be generally practised. 



Plotus melanogaster is called the snake-bird because 

 of its long, slender, snake-like neck, which looks very 

 like the anterior portion of a water-snake when the 

 bird swims, as it often does, with the body submerged. 

 If danger threatens the bird usually sinks in the water 

 until every part of it except the beak disappears. This 

 certainly is a method of hiding superior to that said 

 to be adopted by the ostrich. 



The snake-bird is a rapid swimmer, and as it 

 frequently remains under water for thirteen or fourteen 

 seconds at a time, it is able to move considerable 

 distances while completely submerged. 



