644 BLACK-BELLIED DARTER. 
edges of some of the middle ones, white; secondaries, and greater 
coverts, slightly tipped with white ; the legs are of a pale flesh color ; 
toes bordered with a narrow edge; claws, and ends of the toes, 
black; the tail is even, a very little longer than the wings, and of a 
olackish olive color, with the exception of the two exterior feathers, 
which are whitish, but generally the two middle ones only are seen. 
The female differs in having no black on the forehead, lores, or 
dreast, those parts being pale olive. ‘ 
BLACK-BELLIED DARTER, OR SNAKE-BIRD.— PLOTUS 
MELANOGASTER. — Fig. 311.— Mate. 
Salerne, Orn. p. 375.— Will. Orn. p. 250.—Turt. Syst. 1, 351.— Lath. Gen. 
Syn. pt. 2, p.624.— L’ Anhinga, Buff. Ois. xvi. p. 253. — Anhinga de Cayenne, 
Pi. enl. No. 959. Anhinga melanogaster, Zool. Ind. p. 22, pl. 12.— Colymbus 
colubrinus, Snake Bird, Bartram, p. 132, 295.— Peate's Museum, No. 3188, 
- Male. -* 
PLOTUS ANHINGA. —Linnxvs.* 
Plotus anhinga, Bonap. Synop. p. 411.— Plotus melanogaster, Ord. Ist. edit. of 
’ Supp. p. 79. {9 
Tue Black-bellied Darter is three feet three inches in length; the 
bill is three inches and three quarters long, rather slender, very sharp 
* This very curious genus contains only two known species — that of our au- 
thor, common to both continents of America, and the Plotus Vaillantii of Tem- 
minck, a native of India, Africa, and the South Seas. It has been placed among 
the Pelicanide by most ornithologists; but how far all the forms, which are at 
present included in that family, have a right to be there, J am not at present pre- 
pared to determine: if they are, that of Plotus will hold a very intermediate rank, 
particularly in habits, which may lead to some discoveries in the relations to each 
other. The economy is in a considerable measure arboreal, and in their own fam- 
ily, as now constituted, they show the greatest development of the power of diving, 
and activity in the water. They show also the extreme structure in the power of 
darting, and suddenly again withdrawing their head. The Cormorants and Herons‘ 
possess this power to a great extent, and they all possess a peculiar bend of the neck, 
observed in certain circumstances of the ,bird’s economy, and into which that part 
at once puts itself when the bird is dead. This is produced chiefly by the action of 
two muscles ; the one inserted within the cavity of the breast, and running up with 
a long tendon to the vertebrze beneath the bend ; the other inserted in the joint above 
the bend, and running far down with another slender tendon. The action of these 
two powers, resisted by the muscles on the back part, produce the peculiar angular 
bend, and enable the head to be thrown forward with great force. The effect may 
be easily seen, and produced, by a jointed stick having cords affixed, and acted on 
in this way. We may here introduce the genera Pelicanus, Phalacracorax, Ta- 
chypetes, Sula, and Heliornis, with a short noti¢e of the species of America, as 
pointed out by the ornithologists who have described the productions of that country. 
Pelicanus, Linn. 
=: 1 P. onocrotalus, — White Pelican. — According to Bonaparte, rare and accidental on 
+ the coasts of the Middle States, and said by Dr. Richardson to be numerous in the 
interior of the Fur Countries, up to the 61st deg. parallel. a 
2. P. fuscus, Linneus. — Brown Pelican. — Common in the Southern States, where it 
breeds. 
