282 ,^ STEGANOPODOUS BIRDS. 



again." When swimming with only the head and neck exposed, these birds may 

 easily be mistaken for snakes; while their flight is exceedingly like that of 

 cormorants. Their food consists exclusively of small fishes, which they capture in 

 the water and transfix with their sharp beaks. From observations made on a 

 captive specimen by Mr. Beddard, it appears that when fishing the darter swims 

 beneath the surface of the water with its wings partially expanded, and with a 

 peculiar jerky action of the head and neck, suggestive of a man poising a spear 

 before throwing it. When within striking distance, the bird, by a vigorous lunge of 

 the neck, impales the fish on the tip of its beak, and immediately afterwards rises to 

 the surface, when it shakes off" its prey by a series of jerks of the head and neck. 

 In order to accomplish this bayoneting process, the darter has a peculiar " kink " 

 in the vertebrae of the hinder part of the neck, which can be suddenly straightened 

 out by muscular action, when the head is necessarily shot forwards. Darters build 

 in trees ; the African species generally placing its nest, which is very like that of 

 the tropic-bird, on a bough from four to eight feet above the water. The eggs, 

 which are three to four in number, have light green shells, thickly encrusted with 

 the usual chalky coating. Soon after they are hatched the young have naked 

 heads, but are elsewhere covered with dirty white down. In India the nests are 

 frequently built in association with those of the little cormorant and herons. 

 Certain gipsy tribes who travel in boats on the rivers of Eastern Bengal are very 

 fond of taming darters, each of their vessels having one of these birds sedately 

 perched on its stem. 



The large and somewhat goose-like birds known as gannets and 

 boobies, of which there are some nine species, are much more stoutly 

 built than the darters, and have shorter and thicker necks and beaks. The beak is 

 strong and conical, with its horny covering composed of several pieces, its cutting 

 edges serrated, and its gape extending behind the level of the eyes ; the nostrils 

 being, as in the cormorants, situated at its base and almost invisible. The legs 

 are short, and the claw of the third toe is pectinated like that of the cormorants. 

 The wings are of great length, with the first quill the longest ; and the twelve- 

 feathered tail is rather short and wedge-shaped. A naked area occupies the face 

 and throat. The skeleton difiers from that of the cormorants and darters in that 

 the furcula is not united by bone to the summit of the breast-bone. 



The common or white gannet {Bnla bassana), as the typical and best known 

 example of the genus, will serve as our chief example. Measuring about 34 inches 

 in total length, the adult gannet has the plumage entirely white, with the exception 

 of that of the head and neck, which is buff", and the black primaries of the wings. 

 The beak is horny white, the naked part of the face bluish black, the iris straw- 

 colour, and the front of the leg and foot green, and the remainder nearly black. 

 In young birds the plumage of the upper-parts is blackish brown flecked with 

 white, while beneath it is mingled ashy and bufl! Although occasionally driven 

 inland by stress of weather, the gannet, like its congeners, is a coast-haunting bird, 

 associating on certain cliffs, such as the well-known Bass Rock, in countless swarms. 

 Its range extends over the coasts of the Northern Hemisphere as far north as 

 latitude 70°, and as far south as the tropics ; although the birds only frequent the 

 southern portion of their habitat during the winter, and are but seldom seen at any 



