DAR TERS PELICANS. 



301 



the Darters present many striking differences. They are often called 

 " Snake-Birds," as they are able to submerge their bodies 

 and swim along with only their snake-like heads and The Darters. 

 necks protruding above the water. Cormorants, it may Family Plotidce, 

 be remarked, are said to be able to do the same. Then 

 the Darters have a "kink" in the neck, which the Cormorants have not; 

 and this " kink " is arranged in a sort of set spring-like manner, so that when 

 the bird spears a fish, its neck goes off with a jerk, and the fish is transfixed 

 by its bill in a second. We were much interested in 

 watching a Darter and a Cormorant in the "Fish- 

 House " at the Zoological Gardens, and it was 

 curious to see the way in which these -two birds 

 differed in their mode of catching fish. The Darter, 

 when let out of his cage, plunged into the water and 

 swam about for a little time, then he sank his body 

 below the surface, keeping his head and neck above 

 it, but, perceiving some fish swimming at the bottom 

 of the tank, it simply sank below the water and then 

 went for them with a few rapid strokes. No fish 

 had a chance. The Darter simply let the spring on 

 his neck go, and unerringly speared his victim as 

 with a lance. It was curious to notice that, whereas 

 the Cormorant often swallowed his fish under water, 

 the Darter invariably brought them to the surface, 

 shook them off his bill, and then swallowed them. 



The Darters are tropical birds, being found in 

 America, Africa, India, and Australia, and one 

 species penetrates the Palsearctic region; for the 

 African Darter (Plotus levaillanti} breeds on the Lake of Antioch, where 

 Canon Tristram found the nests. The bird, he says, merely seems to tread 

 down a tuft of coarse grass or rushes, or press down the centre of a little 

 bush. A curious habit of the Darter, and likewise of the Cormorants, is to 

 sit motionless in the sun with extended wings, as if the bird were "hang- 

 ing itself out to dry." A captured Heron or Bittern is an awkward 

 customer to carry home, if not dead, for the bird will reserve all its 

 strength for a final effort to lance its bill at the eye of its captor, as I once 

 had occasion to experience when carrying home a young Heron, which did 

 its best to make a deadly thrust at my face. So with the Darter and its 

 formidable bill, for Mr. Thomas Ayrea writes that a wounded African Darter 

 (P. levaillanti) made a sudden dart at his eye, and it was only by the merest 

 instinct of self-preservation that he put up his hand to receive the thrust. 

 The upper mandible pierced with great force the bone of his thumb, and the 

 bill, being serrated, stuck among the muscles, and he had a hard job to pull 

 it out. 



It is not necessary to enumerate the characters, osteological and other- 

 wise, which distinguish Pelicans, because their external appearance is so 

 peculiar that they are easily recognisable birds. The 

 bulky body, the long bill, hooked at the end and hav- The Pelicans. 

 ing a-n enormous gular pouch, are sufficient external Sub-orderflefewwi. 

 characters to distinguish the Pelicans, so that we need 

 not waste many words on them. In ancient times they were even more 

 widely distributed, and lived in England, like the Flamingoes to which we 



Fig. 57. THE DARTER 

 (Plotus anhinga). 



