730 



SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — STEGANOPODES. 



but dive for and pursue under water like cormorants and loons. The eggs are three or four, 

 pale bluish, with white chalky incrustation. There are only three or four species : the 

 African P. levailkmti ; the P. melcmogaster of Southern Asia, with the Australian P. no'oa- 

 hoUcmdite, if distinct from the last; with the following: 

 304. PLO'TUS. (Grr. irKan-os, plotos, swimming well.) Dartbks. Character as above. 

 760. P. anhin'ga. (Portuguese anhina, Lat. OMgvma, snaky.) Darter. Anhinga. Snake- 

 bird. Water-ttjrkey. $ : Glossy greenish-black ; a broad silver gray wing-band formed 

 by most of the coverts ; lower neck behind spotted, and scapulars and tertiaries striped 

 with silvery-gray; tail pale-tipped; filamentous feathers of neck purplish-ash. 9 '■ with 

 parts of the head, neck, and back brown, the jugulum and breast fawn-color sharply 

 margined with rich brown. Bill yellow, dusky-greenish on the ridge and tip ; sac orange ; 

 eye-space livid ; eye carmine ; feet dusky and yellow. Length about 36.00 ; extent nearly 

 4.00 feet ; wing 13.00-14.00 ; tail 10.00-11.00 ; bill 3.25 along culmen; tarsus 1.33. S. Atlantic 

 and Grulf States, common ; in summer to North Carolina, and up the Mississippi to lUinois and 

 Kansas ; New Mexico. Nest bulky, placed on trees and bushes over the water, of sticks, 

 leaves, roots, moss, etc. ; eggs 3-4, like cormorant eggs in color and texture, but narrow and 

 elongate, 3.60 X 1.35. Young with buff-colored or white woolly down. Fed in the nest 

 by regurgitation, like cormorants. 



57. Family TACHYPETID^ : 



Fig. 607. — Frigate, with Tropic Bird in the distance. 



(From Micholet.) 



Frigates. 



BiU longer than the head, 

 epignathous, stout, straight, 

 wider than high at the base, 

 thence gradually compressed 

 to the strongly hooked extrem- 

 ity, where the under as well as 

 upper mandible is decurved. 

 Nostrils very small, linear, 

 almost entirely closed, in a 

 long narrow groove. Gular 

 sac small, but capable of con- 

 siderable distension. "Wings 

 exceedingly long and pointed, 

 of about 34 remiges, of which 

 the 10 primaries are very pow- 

 erful, with stout quadrangular 

 shafts; upper and middle por- 

 tion of the wings greatly 

 lengthened. Tail very long, 

 deeply forked, of 12 strong 

 feathers. Feet exceedingly 

 small, the tarsus, in particu- 

 lar, extraordinarily short, feath- 

 ered ; webbing restricted, that 

 between inner and next toe 

 very slight; middle claw pec- 

 tinate. Bulk of body slight 

 compared with the great length 

 of the wings and tail. Here 

 only in this order is found the 



