16 GLIMPSES OF INDIAN BIRDS 



The snake-bird is a powerful flier. While on the wing 

 it does not retract its neck after the manner of the 

 heron, but progresses with neck extended. The neck 

 being so slender gives the bird a comic appearance and 

 renders it easy to identify during flight. When resting 

 from its piscatorial labours it betakes itself to the edge 

 of the jhil or to an islet and squats there to dry its 

 plumage in the approved cormorant fashion, with wings 

 partially, and tail fully, expanded. In this grotesque 

 attitude it frequently preens itself, and, thanks to the 

 length of its neck and bill, it has not to undergo the 

 contortions that characterise most birds when trying to 

 reach with the tip of the beak their least accessible 

 feathers. 



The Indian darter does not appear to patronise the 

 open sea. Probably it objects to the swell and finds 

 its quarry easier to catch in comparatively shallow 

 water. It does not mind salt water, for it may be found 

 in tidal estuaries and creeks. I have seen it on the 

 Cooum at Madras. It is, however, essentially a bird 

 of the jhil. Needless to state that it is no songster 

 none of the Phalacocoracidae are melodious nor is it 

 given to undue loquacity, but it is capable, when the 

 occasion demands, of emitting a harsh croak. 



So far as my experience goes, snake-birds usually 

 occur singly or in pairs, but according to Jerdon 

 hundreds of the birds are to be seen on some jhils in 

 Bengal. 



At the nesting season it is more likely to be seen in 

 flocks than at other times, for numbers breed together, 

 often in company with herons and cormorants. Like 



