154 ANHINGA OR SNAKE-BIRD. 
death occasioned sorrow both to my friend and myself, as he had given. 
it to me for the purpose of being sent to that nobleman. 
Ever since I have been acquainted with the Anhinga, I have 
thought that in form and habits it is intimately connected with the 
Cormorants, and was induced to compare their manners. In some re- 
spects I found them similar, in others different ; but when I discovered 
that all these birds possess a remarkable peculiarity in the structure of 
their feathers, I thought that their generic affinity could not be denied. 
The Anhinga has its body and neck covered with what I would call 
Jibrous feathers, having a very slender shaft; while its quills and tail- 
feathers are compact, that is, perfect in structure, strong, and elastic. 
Now the shafts of all these latter feathers are tubular from their bases 
to their very extremities, which, in so far as I know, is not the case in 
any other bird, excepting the Cormorants. They are all very elastic, 
like those in the tails of our largest Woodpeckers, the shafts of which, 
however, are filled with a spongy pith, as in all other land-birds, and in 
all the aquatic species which I have examined, including Divers and 
Grebes, as well as Plungers, such as Gannets, Kings-fishers, and Fishing 
Hawks. The quills and tail-feathers of the Cormorants and Anhinga, 
in short, have the barrel as in other birds, but the shaft hollow, even to 
the tip, its walls being transparent, and of the same nature as the barrel. 
Wiutson, who, it is acknowledged, made his figures from stuffed 
specimens in the Philadelphia Museum, had no positive proof that the 
bird which he took for a female was one, for he had not seen the An- 
hinga alive or recently killed. Even his continuator, Mr Orp, pro- 
cured only males during his visit to the Floridas. But the female which 
I have represented was proved to be of that sex by dissection, and was 
examined by myself nineteen years ago near Bayou Sara. Since that 
time I have had numerous opportunities of satisfying myself as to this 
point, by examining birds in various stages. 
The substances which I have found in many individuals of this spe- 
cies were fishes of various kinds, aquatic insects, crays, leeches, shrimps, 
tadpoles, eggs of frogs, water-lizards, young alligators, water-snakes, 
and small terrapins. I never observed any sand or gravel in the sto- 
mach. On some occasions I found it distended to the utmost, and, as 
I have already stated, the bird has great powers of digestion. Its ex- 
crements are voided in a liquid state, and squirted toa considerable dis- 
tance, as in Cormorants, Hawks, and all birds of prey. 
