TIIK DAHTKK. 235 



Family PLOTID^. 

 Genus PLOTUS, ///////. 



605. PLOTUS MELANOGASTER. 



THE DARTER. 



Anhinga melanogaster, Pain, in 1 -V//-.S/. ]<(. /W. p. 22, pi. 12. Plotus mela- 



nogaster, J<-r<l. /;. 7W. 3i. p. 866$ Hume, <AW/>- ////^/ /,>///*, p. Or,| : .v,,/,., /. 



ffom. ].. :;<'.: : ////.;//<-, -V. /'. iii. p. I'.'J : />'/. /A Ihn-m. p. 1' ft F. 



\. p. 170: 7x W /'-. Birds <'<;jl<,. p. HIM; 77// //</ ,y 7M<;. .V. /-'. vi. p.-1!M; : j,,,/,.,v>-. 

 Ezyerf. p. 398 ; H,n<-, X. F. viii. p. 1J<J; O^-, >S'. F. x. p. 248. 



.-. Male. Chin, throat, the upper part of the fore neck, and 

 a narrow line about five inches in length from the head down the sides of 

 the neck white ; the head and neek marked with minute streaks of black, 

 brown, whitish and rul'csceiit ; the lower part of the front of the neck and 

 thcwholf lower plumage frlo^s.y black; primaries, tecondaries and tail Ijluck 

 \\ ith green, the latter with tlie central feathers rayed across ; uj>per 

 back glo-sy brownish black, the feathers very narrowly margined with 

 nt, the lateral parts streaked with white; wing-coverts, scapulars 

 and K jti; v black, each feather with a long narrow mesial white 



streak; lower b^r-k, rump and upper tail-coverts greenish black. 



The female has the plumage of the same general colour as the male, but 

 <re fulvous ; the black on the chest is bordered by a yellou i^h 

 band which extends up the neck, and the streaks on the upper plumage are 

 yellov, 



yellow ; legs black ; bill with the upper mandible brown or blackish, 

 the lower yellowish. 



#h about #0 inches, tail JO, wing 14, tarsus 1'5, bill from gape 3'8. 



of the same size. 



Darter or, as it is sometimes called, the Snake-bird is very common 

 throughout the Province, being found in all ponds and swamps, and some- 



in rivers where the current is not strong. 



It is found over the whole of India and Ceylon, the Indo-Bunnese 

 countrie-, the .Malay peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and Celebes. 

 Further south it is rcplac' d by P. /tova.'-hol/a/idiai, a closely allied sp( < 



Darter lives chiefly in the water, subsisting on fish, which it catches 

 by diving. It swirns with only the head and a portion of the neck expo-ed 



w. It breeds in large >ocieties and 1 found hundreds of them 

 ing in the Myitkyo >\\arnp in August on dead trees standing in the R 

 >Y four in n umber, are dull chalky \\h 



