A CYPRESS SWAMP. 51 



and the water closes over him without a ripple. If he is 

 floating high, according to his custom when undisturbed, he 

 will disappear like a grebe, sinking in the exact spot where 

 he has been floating. He can swim at any depth. Some- 

 times the whole long neck will be above the surface, rising 

 from the black 3wamp water like some venomous serpent, 

 whence the name of " snake-bird." Often only the bill is put 

 up for breathing, and for a considerable time he can swim 

 under water without coming up to breathe. 



In common with many other birds, the anhinga can fly 

 under water, and will at times rise from the water-flight 

 into the air-flight without a break in the motion. We would 

 hardly expect that a bird so expert in the water would fly 

 strongly and well, but the snake-bird is easy on the wing ; and 

 when seen with its broad wings and tail extended, and its 

 slender neck and body lying between the three nearly equal 

 lobes, it looks, as one observer says, " like an ace of clubs on 

 the wing." 



Fishing in these dark waters, flying over the hummocks, 

 sitting with wings half outstretched to dry, in social little 

 groups, or caring for their blue eggs in their nest that is 

 always built overhanging the water, the anhinga is a bird of 

 the swamps, and may be seen only in some such place as we 

 have described. 



