PELICANS AND DARTERS 



20I 



the pelicans are the darters, easily recognisable by the slender body, the 

 long thin snake-like neck, the long tail, narrower at the base than at the 

 tip, moderately long wings, and the slender, pointed beak. The group is 

 represented by one species in each continent, except Europe. The Indian darter 

 (Plotus melanogaster), which is distributed over India and the Malay countries, 

 lives near fresh water, and is not seen near the sea except at river-mouths. When 



INDIAN DARTER. 



swimming, this bird raises only its head and long serpent-like neck out of the water, 

 and dives either from the surface or from a tree-stump or root a little height above. 

 It subsists on fish, which it captures by stabbing through the gills ; afterwards, rising 

 with its victim to the surface, it throws it into the air, catches it, and swallows it 

 head-first. After the meal, it rests, like a cormorant, with expanded wings on the 

 branch of a tree or some other convenient station. The nest and eggs are like those of 

 cormorants, in whose society, as well as in that of herons, darters frequently breed. 



