DARTER, OR SNAKE BIRD. 249 



GENUS LXVII PLOTUS, LINNJJUS. 

 289. PLOTUS ANBIXGAy LINN^IUS. 

 PLOTUS MELANOGASTER, WILSON. 



DARTER, OR SNAKE BIRD.* 

 WILS. PL. LXXIV. FIG. I. MALE. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 



HEAD, neck, whole body, above and below, of a deep 

 shining black, with a green gloss, the plumage extremely 

 soft and agreeable to the touch ; the commencement of 

 the back is ornamented with small, oblong, ashy white 

 spots, which pass down the shoulders, increasing in size 

 according to the size of the feathers, and running down 

 the scapulars ; wings and tail of a shining black, the 

 latter broadly tipt with dirty white ; the lesser coverts 

 are glossed with green, and are spotted with ashy white; 

 the last row of the lesser coverts, and the coverts of the 

 secondaries, are chiefly ashy white, which forms a large 

 bar across the wing; the outer web of the large scapulars 

 is crimped ; tail, rounded, the two under feathers the 

 shortest, the two upper feathers, for the greater part of 

 their length, beautifully crimped on their outer webs, 

 the two next feathers in a slight degree so ; bill, dusky 

 at the base and above ; the upper mandible brownish 

 yellow at the sides, the lower mandible yellow ochre; 

 inside of the mouth dusky ; irides, dark crimson ; the 

 orbit of the eye, next to the plumage of the head, is of 

 a greenish blue colour, this passes round, in the form 

 of a zigzag band, across the front, the next colour is 

 black, which entirely surrounds the eye ; eyelids, of a 

 bright azure, running into violet next the eyeball ; 

 lores, greenish blue; naked skin in front black ; jugular 

 pouch, jet black; hindhead subcrested ; along the sides 

 of the neck there runs a line of loose unwebbed feathers 

 of a dingy ash colour, resembling the plumage of callow 



* Named in the plate, Black-bellied Darter. The article is the 

 composition of Mr Ord. 



