ANHINGA OR SNAKE-BIRD. 143 
somewhat resemble the head and part of the body of a snake. It is in 
fact from this circumstance that the Anhinga has received the name of 
Snake-Bird. At such a time, it is seen constantly turning its head from 
side to side, often opening its bill as if for the purpose of inhaling a 
larger quantity of air, to enable it the better to dive, and remain under 
water so long that when it next makes its appearance it is out of your 
reach. When fishing in a state of security it dives precisely like a 
Cormorant, returns to the surface as soon as it has procured a fish or 
other article of food, shakes it, if it is not too large often throws it up 
into the air, and receiving it conveniently in the bill, swallows it at 
once, and recommences its search. But I doubt much if it ever seizes 
on any thing that it cannot thus swallow whole. They have the curious 
habit of diving under any floating substances, such as parcels of dead 
weeds or leaves of trees which have accidentally been accumulated by 
the winds or currents, or even the green slimy substances produced by 
putrefaction. This habit is continued by the species when in a perfect 
state of domestication, for I have seen one kept by my friend Joun 
Bacuman thus diving when within a few feet of a quantity of floating 
rice-chaff, in one of the tide-ponds in the neighbourhood of Charleston. 
Like the Common Goose, it invariably depresses its head while swim- 
ming under a low bridge, or a branch or trunk of a tree hanging over 
the water. When it swims beneath the surface of the water, it spreads 
its wings partially, but does not employ them as a means of propul. 
sion, and keeps its tail always considerably expanded, using the feet as 
paddles either simultaneously or alternately. 
The quantity of fish consumed by this bird is astonishing; and 
what I am about to relate on this subject will appear equally so. One 
morning Dr Bacuman and I gave to an Anhinga a Black Fish, measur- 
ing nine and a half inches, by two inches in diameter; and although 
the head of the fish was considerably larger than its body, and its 
strong and spinous fins appeared formidable, the bird, which was then 
about seven months old, swallowed it entire, head foremost. It was 
in appearance digested in an hour and a half, when the bird swallowed 
three others of somewhat smaller size. At another time, we placed 
before it a number of fishes about seven and a half inches long, of which 
it swallowed nine in succession. It would devour at a meal forty or 
more fishes about three inches and a half long. On several occasions 
it was fed on Plaice, when it swallowed some that were four inches 
