142 ANHINGA OR SNAKE- BIRD. 
ed the Floridas, added nothing of importance beyond giving more ac- 
curate measurements of a single specimen than Witson had given from 
the stuffed skins from which he made his figures, and which were in 
the museum of that city. 
The peculiar form, long wings, and large fan-like tail of the An- 
hinga, would at once induce a person looking upon it to conclude that 
it was intended by nature rather for protracted and powerful flight, than 
for spending as it does more than half of its time by day in the water, 
where its progress, one might suppose, would be greatly impeded by 
the amplitude of these parts. Yet how different from such a supposi- 
tion is the fact? The Anhinga in truth is the very first of all fresh- 
water divers. With the quickness of thought it disappears beneath 
the surface, and that so as scarcely to leave a ripple on the spot; and 
when your anxious eyes seek around for the bird, you are astonished 
to find it many hundred yards distant, the head perhaps merely above 
water for a moment; or you may chance to perceive the bill alone 
gently cutting the water, and producing a line of wake not observable 
beyond the distance of thirty yards from where you are standing. With 
habits like these it easily eludes all your efforts to procure it. When 
shot at while perched, however severely wounded they may be, they 
fall at once perpendicularly, the bill downward, the wings and tail 
closed, and then dive and make their way under water to such a distance 
that they are rarely obtained. Should you, however, see them again, 
and set out in pursuit, they dive along the shores, attach themselves to 
roots of trees or plants by the feet, and so remain until life is extinct. 
When shot dead on the trees, they sometimes cling so firmly to the 
branches that you must wait some minutes before they fall. 
The generally received opinion or belief that the Anhinga always 
swims with its body sunk beneath the surface is quite incorrect; for it 
does so only when in sight of an enemy, and when under no apprehen- 
sion of danger it is as buoyant as any other diving bird, such as a Cor- 
morant, a Merganser, a Grebe, or a Diver. This erroneous opinion 
has, however, been adopted simply because few persons have watched 
the bird with sufficient care. When it first observes an enemy, it im- 
mediately sinks its body deeper, in the manner of the birds just men- 
tioned, and the nearer the danger approaches, the more does it sink, 
until at last it swims off with the head and neck only above the sur- 
face, when these parts, from their form and peculiar sinnous motion, 
