250 PLOTUS ANHINGA. 



young" ; hero and there, on the upper part of the neck, 

 one perceives a feather of the same; on the forehead 

 there is a small knob or protuberance ; the neck, nar 

 its centre, takes a singular bend, in order to enable the 

 bird to dart forward its bill with velocity when it takes 

 its prey ; legs and feet of a yellowish clay colour, the 

 toes, and the hind part of the legs, with a dash of 

 dusky; claws greatly falcated; when the wings are 

 closed they extend to the centre of the tail. 



Length, from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, 

 two feet ten inches,* breadth three feet ten inches ; 

 bill to the angle of the mouth full four inches ; tail, ten 

 inches and a half, composed of twelve broad and stiff 

 feathers ; weight three pounds and a half. 



The serratures of the bill are extremely sharp, so 

 much so that when one applies tow, or such like 

 substance, to the bird's mouth, it is with difficulty 

 disengaged. 



The lower mandible and throat, as in the divers, are 

 capable of great expansion to facilitate the swallowing 

 of fish, which constitute the food of this species. The 

 position of these birds, when standing, is like that of 

 the gannets. 



The above description was taken from a fine adult 

 male specimen, which was shot by my fellow-traveller, 

 Mr T. Peale, on the 1st of March, 1818, in a creek below 

 the Cow Ford, situated on the river St John, in East 

 Florida. We saw some others in the vicinity, but, 

 owing to their extreme vigilance and shyness, we could 

 not procure them. 



From the description of the white-bellied darter of 

 Latham and others, which is unquestionably this sjx'rirs, 

 one would be inclined to conjecture, that the bird figured 

 as the female is the young male. But this point it is 



* The admeasurement of the specimen described in the first 

 edition of Hie ninth volume, was made by Wilson himself from the 

 stuffed bird in Peale's museum. It differs considerably from that 

 described above ; but as our specimen was a very fine one, there is 

 room to conjecture that there was some error in the admeasurement 

 of the former, ours being described immediately after death. 





