PLoius. 337 



the late Mr. W. A. Forbes, Prosector of the Zooloi^ical Society of London : — " Professor 

 Garrod has fully and accurately described the peculiar osteological character of the neck of the 

 Darter. But probably from never having; observed these birds when feeding', lie has not pointed 

 out the connection between this peculiar neck, with its naturally persistent kink, of the [barters 

 and their mode of life. 



"The Darters feed entirely, so far as I have been able to observe, under water. Swimming 

 with its wings half expanded, though locomotion is effected entirely by the feet, the bird pursues 

 his prey (small fishes) with a peculiar 'darting' or jerky action of the head and neck, which 

 may be compared to that of a man poising a spear or harpoon before throwing it. Arrived 

 within striking distance, the Darter suddenly transfixes, in facts bayonets, the fish on the tip of 

 its beak' with marvellous dexterity, and then immediately comes to the surface, where the fish is 

 shaken oft the beak by jerking the head and necis, repeated till successfully thrown upwaids, 

 and swallowed usually head first. A study of the neck in a recently dead bird, leaves little doubt 

 as to the mechanism by which the peculiar impaling of the prey is effected. The eighth cervical 

 vertebra is articulated with the seventh in such a way that the two cannot naturally be got to lie 

 in the same line, but form an anf;le, open forwards, of about 145', when the two bones are 

 stretched as far as is possible in that direction. IJehind, its articulation with the ninth cervical 

 is such as to permit it to be bent back at an an;;le a little greater than go' with that \'ertebra, 

 beyond which extent, however, no furthet flexion is possible. . . . When the neck is bent in 

 this Z-shaped form, any opening out of anterior angular bend by the action of the anterior neck 

 muscles, causes tlie anterior moiety of the neck to suddenl}' shoot out, thus causing a correspond- 

 ing protrusion of the head and bealc. . . . This protrusion, though only for a short distance, is 

 so violent as to effectually 'strike' the lish which the bird is pursuing. . . . 



" It is obvious that considerable advantage is gained by the action in (juestion, the rapid 

 protrusion of the narrow neck and head over a small space by this mechanism necessitating a 

 less amount of exertion than would a similar movement of the whole biid o\er tlie same space, 

 and being equally efficacious in striking the prey. The whole mechanism, it may be observed, 

 exists in a less developed form in the neck of the Herons, Cormorants, &c., and it requires but a 

 slight modification of the arrangement of these parts in those birds — none of which, so far as I 

 know, impale their prey like the Darters — to bring about the perfect adaptation of these structures 

 to a newly acquired mode of feeding." 



Of the fish-eating propensities of the different species of the genus Plotits, Audubon, writing 

 of F'lotiis anhinij;a of tropical and sub-tropical .America, remarks of one in connnement : — 

 " One morning I gave it a black fish measurini; nine and a half inches in length by two 

 inches in diameter, and although the head of the fish was considerably larger than its 

 body, and its strong and spinous fins appeared formidable, the bird, which was then about seven 

 months old, swallowed it entire head foremost. It was in appearance digested in an hour and a 

 half, when the bird swallowed three others of somewhat smaller size. At another time we placed 

 before it a number of fishes about seven and a half inches long, of which it swallowed nine in 

 succession. It would devour at a meal forty or more fishes about three inches and a half long. 

 On several occasions it was fed on plaice, when it swallowed some that were four inches broad, 

 extending its throat and compressing them during their descent into the stomach." 



The present species is found, although it is by no means common, in the neighbourhood of 

 Sydney, a fine plumaged old male in the Australian Museum Collection having been procured 

 at Lake Narrabeen. In New South Wales I have, however, noted it commoner in the Upper 

 Clarence, Tweed and Gwydir Rivers. 



From Copmanhurst, Upper Clarence River, New .South Wales, Mr. George Savidge sends 

 me the following note : — " Plotits nova-hollandia, locally called the Snake-necked Darter, is found 



* Proc. Zool. Soc, 1SS2, pp. 210-12. 



