238 PLOTUS.— SULID^. 



Genus PLOTUS. 



irXc6s=a swimmer. 



Bill slender, sharp pointed, both margins toothed near tip. No lateral groove. 

 Wings long. Third quill longest. Tail long, cuneate, of twelve rigid feathers. 

 Mid-tail transversely ribbed. Mid claw pectinate. 



272. Plotus melanogaster. The Indian Darter or Snake Bird. 



Banwa, India; Sili, Sind; Goyar, Bengal; Killaki-pitta (Telugu); Pam buttara, Ceylon. 



$ 32" to 36". Legs black. Bill dusky and yellow. Long and lanceolate 

 scapulars more than 5" long, spotted white. Outer webs of secondary coverts 

 mostly silvery white. Foreneck never entirely chestnut. Black at base of fore, 

 neck, and chest not divided by buff bands from brown base of hind neck and 

 upper hack.^Female : Black at base of foreneck, and chest divided on each side 

 from hind neck and upper back by a wide buff band terminating at the shoulder. 

 Throughout the Oriental region, India, Ceylon, and Burma. Three or four eggs 

 (2-13 X 1-37). 



Also P. novce hollandice. 31". Scapulars less than 5" long. Neck and under parts black. 

 Long chestnut patch at hase of foreneck. — Female : Foreneck and below white. Australia, 

 New Guinea, and New Zealand. 



P, rufiis, 36". Outer webs of secondary coverts mostly rufous. Entire foreneck from 

 throat downward chestnut. Black at back of foreneck, and chest not divided by chestnut 

 bands from base of hind neck and upper back. — Female: Black at base of foreneck, and chest 

 divided on each side from base of hindneck and upper back by a chestnut band terminating 

 at the shoulder, N. Syria, Africa, north of 20° N. lat., and Madagascar. 



P. anhinga. 36". Tail tipped white. Foreneck, chest, and below black. — Female : Fore- 

 neck and chest whitish. Tropical and subtropical America. * 



Family SULID^ (Plunging Fishers). G-annets and Boobies. 



Bill broad at base, pointed, curved, but not hooked, upper mandible with linear 

 groove on each side. Nostrils closed. Plumage black and white, or brown and 

 white. Tail wedge-shaped. Web between toes not emarginate. Smaller than 

 a goose, ungainly and awkward on land, but a perfect swimmer, with great powers 

 of flight. 



"It is conjectured that Gannets destroy more than 100,000,000 of herrings 

 yearly. The apparatus by which this bird is furnished for its aerial powers, as 

 well as for aiding its arrowy descent, is very beautiful and instructive. Professor 

 Owen, by inserting a tube into the windpipe, was enabled to inflate the whole 

 body with air, and found that air cells communicating with each other pervaded 

 every part, separating even the muscles from each other, and isolating the very 

 vessels and nerves, and penetrating the bones of the wings. A large air cell was 

 found to be placed in front of the forked bone or clavicle, which was furnished 

 with muscles, whose action was instantaneously to expel the air, and thus in a 

 moment to deprive the bird of that buoyancy so necessary for its flight, but equally 

 detrimental to its swoop " (The Ocean, by P. H. Gosse). 



Temperate and tropical seas. 



