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approach of danger. It is capable of moving for considerable distances under water, 

 and usually swims with nothing but its head and neck exposed, though, when 

 danger threatens, everything but its bill disappears, till it considers it has gone far 

 enough to be perfectly safe, when it gradually shows up again. ' ' When swimming 

 with only the head and neck exposed, these birds may easily be mistaken for snakes, 

 while their flight is exceedingly like that of cormorants. Their food consists ex- 

 clusively of small fishes, which they capture in the water and transfix with their 

 sharp beaks. From observations made on a captive specimen by Mr. Beddard, it 

 appears that when fishing the darter swims beneath the surface of the water with its 

 wings partially expanded, and with a peculiar jerky action of the head and neck, 

 suggestive of a man poising a spear before throwing it. When within striking dis- 

 tance, the bird, by a vigorous lunge of the neck, impales the fish on the tip of its 

 beak, and immediately afterward rises to the surface, when it shakes off its prey by 

 a series of jerks of the head and neck. In order to accomplish this bayoneting proc- 

 ess, the darter has a peculiar ' ' kink ' ' in the vertebrae of the hinder part of the 

 neck, which can be suddenly straightened out by muscular action, when the head is 

 necessarily shot forward. Darters build in trees, the African species generally plac- 

 ing its nest, which is very like that of the tropic bird, on a bough from four to eight 

 feet above the water. The eggs, which are three to four in number, have light 

 green shells, thickly incrusted with the usual chalky coating. Soon after they are 

 hatched the young have naked heads, but are elsewhere covered with dirty white 

 down. In India the nests are frequently built in association with those of the little 

 cormorant and herons. Certain gypsy tribes who travel in boats on the rivers of 

 Eastern Bengal are very fond of taming darters, each of their vessels having one of 

 these birds sedately perched on its stern. 



The large and somewhat goose-like birds known as gannets and 

 boobies, of which there are some nine species, are much more-stoutly 

 built than the darters, and have shorter and thicker necks and beaks. The beak is 

 strong and conical, with its horny covering composed of several pieces, its cutting 

 edges serrated, and its gape extending behind the level of the eyes, the nostrils 

 being, as in the cormorants, situated at its base and almost invisible. The legs are 

 short, and the claw of the third toe is pectinated like that of the cormorants. The 

 wings are of great length, with the first quill the longest, and the twelve-feathered 

 tail is rather short and wedge shaped. A naked area occupies the face and throat. 

 The skeleton differs from that of the cormorants and darters in that the furcula is 

 not united by bone to the summit of the breastbone. 



The common or white gannet (Sula bassana), as the typical and best-known 

 example of the genus, will serve as our chief example. Measuring about thirty- 

 four inches in total length, the adult gannet has the plumage entirely white, with 

 the exception of that of the head and neck, which is buff, and the black primaries 

 of the wings. The beak is horny white; the naked part of the face bluish black; 

 the iris straw color; the front of the leg and foot green, and the remainder 

 nearly black. In young birds the plumage of the upper parts is blackish brown 

 flecked with white, while beneath it is mingled ashy and buff. Although occasion- 

 ally driven inland by stress of weather, the gannet, like its congeners, is a coast- 



