ANHINGA OR SNAKE-BIRD. 137 
down far softer than our sea-island cottons, writhing their slender and tre- 
mulous necks, and with open mouths and extended pouches seeking, as 
all infants are wont to seek, the food suited to their delicate frame. 
Then, retiring to some concealed spot, I have seen the mother arrive 
with a supply of finely masticated nutriment, compounded of various 
fishes from the lake, and furnish each of her progeny by regurgitation 
with its due proportion. Thus, also, I have watched the growth of the 
younglings, marking their daily progress, which varied according to the 
changes of temperature and the state of the atmosphere. At length, after 
waiting many days in succession, I have seen them stand, in an almost 
erect posture, on a space scarcely large enough to contain them. The 
parents seemed aware of the condition of their brood, and, affectionate 
as they still appeared to be, I thought their manner towards them was 
altered, and I felt grieved. Indeed, sorely grieved I was when, next 
week, I saw them discharge, as it were, their children, and force them 
from the nest into the waters that were spread below. It is true that, 
previous to this, I had seen the young Anhingas trying the power of 
their wings as they stood upright on the nest, flapping them many mi- 
nutes at atime; yet, although thus convinced that they were nearly 
in a state to provide for themselves, it was not without a feeling of des- 
pondency that I saw them hurled into the air, and alight on the water. 
But, Reader, Nature in all this had acted beneficially ; and I afterwards 
found that in thus expelling their young so soon, the old birds had in 
view to rear another brood in the same spot, before the commencement 
of unfavourable weather. 
Many writers have described what they have been pleased to call 
the habits of the Anhinga; nay, some have presumed to offer com- 
ments upon them, and to generalize and form theories thereon, or even 
to inform us gravely and oracularly what they ought to be, when the 
basis of all their fancies was merely a dried skin and feathers appended. 
Leaving these ornithologists for the present to amuse themselves in 
their snug closets, I proceed to detail the real habits of this curious 
bird, as I have observed and studied them in Nature. 
The Snake-Bird is a constant resident in the Floridas, and the lower 
parts of Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia. Few remain during winter 
in South Carolina, or in any district to the eastward of that State; but 
some proceed as far as North Carolina in spring, and breed along the 
