PHALACROCOBACID^ PLOTUS 15 



the neck, something like the poising of a spear before it is thrown. 

 When sufficiently close to the fish it suddenly throws its whole 

 head forward and transfixes its prey on its sharp needle-Hke bill, 

 both mandibles of which are serrated along their cutting edges. It 

 then rises to the surface, and after a series of upward jerks of the 

 head and neck, succeeds in throwing its prey up in the air, and, 

 opening its bill, swallows it head first. The forward jerk is effected 

 by a peculiar modification of the vertebrae, muscles and tendons of 

 the neck ; the eighth cervical vertebra is elongated and larger than 

 the others, and when at rest forms a forwardly directed angle with 

 the seventh and a backwardly directed angle with the ninth ; this 

 kink in the neck can be straightened out by the contraction of 

 certain muscles, so that the head is thrown forwards. A detailed 

 account of the whole structure was first given by Garrod {Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. 1876, p. 335). 



In South Africa the Darter has been found nesting only near 

 Mr. Melck's farm on the Berg Kiver, where it was first observed by 

 Mr. Layard and subsequently by Dr. Stark. The latter's note-book 

 contains the following account : " On September 9th, 1896, at 

 Melck's farm on the Great Berg Eiver I visited a breeding-place of 

 the Snake Bird on the river just above the farm. There were 

 numerous nests built on willow tops projecting from ten to fifteen 

 feet above a still portion of the river. In some places six or eight 

 pairs of Darters occupied a small group of willows by themselves. 

 In others their nests were mixed with those of Phalacrocorax afri- 

 canus, Ardea cinerea, Nycticorax griseus and Herodias garzetta. All 

 the birds were fairly tame, especially the Snake Birds, whose nests 

 were about two-thirds of the way up the willows, which were leafless 

 at that time. The nests were rough bundles of sticks ; the birds 

 sit on the nest horizontally with head and neck drawn in. I waded 

 across to some trees in which some ten nests were built and climbed 

 to five from which I took eggs, three to five from each nest. The 

 nests were constructed of dead sticks roughly placed together in a 

 fork of the branch ; they measured eighteen inches across by nine 

 inches deep ; most of the nests had a scanty lining of green reeds 

 and weeds ; they were coated outside with white droppings and had 

 the usual cormorant smell." The eggs taken on that occasion, now 

 in the South African Museum, are rather smooth and shiny, white 

 in colour and elongate in shape : like those of the cormorant, they 

 have the usual underlying bluish layer, and measure on an average 

 2-20 X 1-40. 



