882 SNAKE-BIRD 
cock, having the head, neck and breast of a more or less deep buff, 
bounded beneath by a narrow chestnut band; but otherwise her 
plumage is like that of her mate, only not so bright in colour. The 
habits of this species have been repeatedly described by American 
writers, and those of its congeners, to be immediately mentioned, 
seem to be essentially the same. The Snake-bird frequents the 
larger rivers or back-waters connected with them, where it may be 
seen resting motionless on some neighbouring tree, generally choos- 
ing a dead branch, or on a “snag” projecting from the bottom, 
whence it plunges beneath the surface, in pursuit of its fishy prey, 
to emerge, in the manner before related, shewing little more than 
its slender head and neck. Its speed and skill under water are 
almost beyond exaggeration, and it exhibits these qualities even in 
captivity, taking—apparently without effort—fish after fish that 
may be introduced into its tank, however rapidly they may swim 
and twist, and only returning to its perch when its voracious appe- 
tite is for the moment appeased or its supply of food temporarily 
exhausted. Then, after adjusting its plumage with a few rapid 
passes of its bill, and often expanding its wings, as though, Cor- 
morant-fashion, to dry them, it abandons itself to the pleasurable 
and passive process of digestion, reawaking to activity at the call 
of hunger. Yet at liberty it will indulge in long flights, and those 
of the male at the breeding-season are ostentatiously performed 
in the presence of his mate, around whom he plays in irregular 
zigzag courses. The nest is variously placed, but almost always 
in trees or bushes overhanging the water’s edge, and is a large 
structure of sticks, roots and moss, in which are laid four eggs 
with the white chalky shell that is so characteristic of most 
Steganopodous birds. Not unfrequently several or even many 
nests are built close together, and the locality that suits the Snake- 
bird suits also many of the Herons, so that these, its distant rela- 
tives, are often also its near neighbours.! The African Snake-bird, 
P. congensis (or levaillanti of some authors), inhabits the greater 
part of that continent from Natal northwards; but, though met 
with on the White Nile, it is not known to have occurred in Egypt, 
a fact the more remarkable seeing that Canon Tristram found it 
breeding in considerable numbers on the Lake of Antioch, to which 
it is a summer-visitor, and it can hardly reach its home without 
passing over the intervening country. The male is easily dis- 
tinguishable from that of the American species by its rufous 
coronal patch, its buff throat and its chestnut greater wing-coverts. 
A third species, P. melanogaster, ranges from Madagascar to India, 
1 The curious but apparently well-attested fact of the occurrence in England, 
near Poole, in June 1851, of a male bird of this species (Zoologist, pp. 3601, 
3654) has been overlooked by several writers who profess to mention all cases of 
a similar character, 
