202 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



area just back of angle of gonys solid yellow; upper mandible blackish 

 brown ; lower mandible white with terminal third dusky brown ; legs and 

 nails black. Length, 850 ; wing, 345 ; tail, 180 ; culmen, 66 ; tarsus, 60 ; 

 middle toe with claw, 85. 



Family ANHINGIDJE. 



Bill long, slender, straight, and sharply pointed, cutting edges near 

 tip with distinct serrations ; head small ; neck long and slender ; tail long ; 

 scapular feathers lanceolate; a pair of inner secondaries and the inner- 

 most pair of rectrices with outer webs pliciform. 



Genus ANHINGA Brisson, 1760. 



Characters same as those given for the Family. 



167. ANHINGA MELANOG ASTER Pennant. 

 INDIAN DARTER. 



Anhinga melanogaster PENNANT, Indian Zool. (1769), 13, pi. 12; McGBEGOB 

 and WORCESTER, Hand-List (1906), 39. 



Plotus melanogaster GRANT, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 414; BLAN- 

 FORD, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4, 344, fig. 78; SHARPE, Hand-List 

 (1899), 1, 236; GATES, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 207. 



Ca-si-li, Manila, also used for the cormorant. 



Luzon (Meyer, McGregor) ; Mindanao (Mearns, Clemens) ; Mindoro (Bteere 

 Exp., Schmacker, Bourns & Worcester, McGregor , Porter); Negros (Layard). 

 Mesopotamia, Indian Peninsula, Indo-Chinese countries, Indo-Malay Peninsula, 

 Borneo, Celebes. 



"Adult male. Chin, throat, and upper part of fore neck mottled with 

 white; a narrow white line, about 125 mm. long, commencing above gape 

 and continued down si<Jes of neck; head and neck brown, darker and 

 slightly glossed on the crown and along the back of the neck, paler down 

 the middle of fore neck, each feather being margined with pale brown 

 and giving the whole a finely scaled appearance; upper back brownish 

 black, each feather narrowly margined with rufescent and streaked with 

 white on the lateral parts; rest of back, rump, lower part of fore neck, 

 and under parts black with an oil-green gloss; wing-coverts, scapulars, 

 and innermost secondaries black, each with a long, silvery white streak 

 down the middle; scapulars much elongated and pointed, the longest 

 measuring about 230 mm. ; innermost secondary transversely ribbed along 

 the basal two-thirds of outer web; quills and tail black, the middle pair 

 of tail-feathers strongly ribbed on outer web and outer pairs slightly 

 rayed. Tail composed of twelve feathers. 'Iris yellow; bill dusky on 

 culmen, yellowish on sides and on lower mandible ; legs black.' ( Godwin- 

 Austen.) Length, about 890; culmen, from feathers on forehead, 89 to 

 91 ; wing, 330 to 355 ; tail, 218 to 230 ; tarsus, 43 ; outer toe with claw, 81. 



