PLOTIN^E. 865 



The next bird, and the last on our list, may be considered to be- 

 long to the Graculida, but perhaps should form a separate sub- 

 family, consisting of one genus. 



Sub-fam. Plotinje. 



Gen. Plottjs, Linnseus. 



Char. — Bill elongate, slender, straight, subulate, very acute, the 

 margin obliquely toothed towards the tip; nostrils very small, basal; 

 tail long, rounded ; neck very long and slender ; body and feet as 

 in the Cormorants. 



These may be said to be Cormorants with the head and neck of 

 a Heron ; the scapulars are elongate, lanceolate, and very beautiful- 

 ly marked, silvery and black. In their anatomy they quite 

 resemble Cormorants. 



There are four species, one American, one African, one Indian, 

 and the fourth Australian. 



1008. Plotus melanogaster, Gmelin. 



Blyth, Cat. 1749 — .Terdon, Cat. 393 — Pennant, Ind. Zool. 

 pi. 12 — Sykes, Cat. 228— Banwa, H. — Goyar Beng. — Sili, Sindh. 

 — Kallaki-pitta, Tel. — Chakuri of the Southern Goncls. 



The Indian Snake bird. 



Descr. — Forehead, nape, and neck mottled brown, each feather 

 being dark-brown with a pale edging, the median line of the 

 head, nape, and hind neck being darker than the rest, and the me- 

 dian line below paler ; a minute white line from the base of the 

 -bill over the eye ; the cheeks, chin, and throat white, continued in a 

 line from below the eye down the side of the neck for nearly half its 

 length, and gradually overcome on the sides of the fore-neck by the 

 brown feathers which run along the sides of the neck, and form a 

 narrow line passing up through the white to the gape ; upper back 

 gradually changing from the brown of the hind -neck into the 

 brownish-black of the rest of the dorsal region, and on the sides 

 spotted with white, the spots commencing at first as small oval drops, 

 and gradually increasing in size and shape to the scapulars, which are 

 long and lanceolate, and deep black with the central portion silvery- 



PART II. R 



