GLEANINGS. 



615 



catching prey. The nest of the Pelicans is generally ar- 

 ranged on the ground near the water, and they lay large, 

 white eggs. 



The Darter or Snake-bird (Plotus anhinga], about 3 feet 

 long, is " glossy greenish-black ; a broad, gray wing-band 

 formed by most of the coverts; lower neck behind and 

 scapulars speckled with grayish-white; tertiaries striped 

 with silvery-ash; tail, pale-tipped; filamentous feathers of 

 neck, purplish-ash; the female, with parts of the head, neck 

 and back, brown, the throat and breast, fawn-color, sharply 

 margined with rich brown." (Coues.) It is an odd-shaped 

 bird, and belongs to the Southern States. 



Frigate or Man-of-War Bird (Tachypetes aquilus), some 

 42 inches long and 8 feet in extent, is a curious shaped bird, 

 with long, slender, hooked bill, and pouch under the chin; 

 immense spread of wings and long forked tail; very short 

 legs and small webbed feet. The male is brownish-black, 

 with more or less iridescence, and lighter underneath; the 

 female, white on the neck and breast. This grand bird, of 

 marvelous powers of 'flight, gregarious, especially in the 

 breeding season, when it nests in bushes by the water, lay- 

 ing 2 or 3 greenish-white eggs, is found in the South Atlan- 

 tic and Gulf States, and in the tropics. 



The Yellow-billed Tropic Bird (P/iceton flavirostris), about 

 the size of a small Gull, satiny-white, rose-tinted in matur- 

 ity; basal half of many of the shafts and fine markings in 

 many of the feathers, black; bill, orange or yellow; the 

 small webbed feet, black. A young male of this species, 

 rare even on the Gulf Coast, was brought to me alive in 

 Orleans Co., in September, 1876. It was picked up in a 

 state of exhaustion in a clover field, after a heavy storm 

 from the southwest. 



The Skua Gulls or Jaegers, genus Stercorarius, are large, 



