DIKECTOKY TO BIRDS OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 35 



a. Anhingas. Anhinga. 

 Characters as under A. 



1. ANHINGA, A. ANHINGA. 35.00 ; male, greenish-black 

 spotted on upper back and streaked on scapularies and wing 

 coverts ( forming a patch on greater ) with gray ; tail, tipped 

 with reddish-ash; in breeding birds there are numerous, 

 long, filamentous, ashy-white feathers scattered over the 

 head and neck ; gula sac and lower mandible, orange ; upper 

 mandible and space in front of eye, dark-brown, the latter 

 black lined with green in breeding birds ; iris, red ; feet, 

 brown. Young, with more or less whitish on head and neck 

 and the tail feathers are not corrugated. Female differs from 

 male in having head, neck and upper breast ashy-yellow, 

 becoming brownish above. Young, browner with few or no 

 white markings above. Common along rivers and on inland 

 bodies of fresh water where it sits upright on trees that pro- 

 ject over the water; when suddenly alarmed drops directly 

 into the water and instantly disappears ; has the power of 

 sinking slowly under the surface, beneath which it can swim 

 with ease, thus capturing the fishes upon which it feeds ; 

 sometimes plunges into the water when in full flight, but 

 always obliquely, and can emerge in flight ; often swims with 

 the head and neck or even the head or bill projecting above 

 the surface. The cry, seldom given, is guttural and harsh. 

 Resident in tropical and subtropical America, north in sum- 

 mer to the Carolinas, the mouth of the Ohio and southern 

 Kansas. Breeds in Florida in March. Fig. 36. 



F. FRIGATE BIRDS. Fregatidae. 



Ocean birds of large size and power- 

 ful flight; bill, longer than head, some- 

 what flattened and strongly hooked, fig. 

 36, head, large and somewhat crested; 

 gula sac, rather large; space around eye, 

 naked but this does not extend to bill ; 

 neck, short; wings, long; tail, deeply 

 forked, outer feathers, considerably elon- 

 gated; feet, very small, toes, about half E, F, a, 1. 1-20. 



