Birds. 3655 



give into the notion, that your bird has escaped from captivity, as I 

 have never heard of an instance that it has been bred up tame ; and I 

 am quite sure that the habits of a wild one, when caught, would not 

 allow it to endure a sea voyage. Those in the Essequibo were not 

 remarkably shy ; but when our canoe approached the tree on which 

 they were sitting, they would drop down into the water, head foremost, 

 with the velocity of a falling stone, and with their wings motionless 

 by their sides. At times they would cross the river, and then I had 

 an opportunity of procuring one ; but being on my journey into the 

 interior, and not finding it convenient to preserve specimens, I fired 

 at no more. The one I killed, was a fine old male of a bottle-green 

 colour, and with less white on it than that which you have described : 

 the two covert feathers of its tail were crimped very deeply in the most 

 regular manner ; one on each side of these was slightly crimped, but 

 only on the outer side of the shaft. I have a picture in the house, of 

 three fantastical beggars : it is Spanish, and is probably more than 

 two hundred years old : each beggar has some scapular feathers of the 

 African Anhinga in his cap. I think that I have now given you all I 

 know about the darter." 



So far Mr. Waterton, who, as an eye-witness of the habits of this 

 bird in its own native haunts, and at the same time a very first-rate or- 

 nithologist, is the most valuable authority we can desire. 



I subjoin a few more particulars of the character and habits of this 

 bird, which I have extracted from the authorities mentioned in my 

 former account, with the addition of an extract here and there from 

 Wilson's c American Ornithology.' And first, the generic character of 

 Plotus, which I intended to have given before: — "Beak long, straight, 

 slender and pointed, its tip finely toothed ; edges of the upper man- 

 dible dilated at the base, but otherwise compressed and inclined in- 

 wards ; lower mandible shorter than the upper ; nostrils linear and 

 concealed in a slight groove : wings long, the first alar quill shorter 

 than the three following, and the third quill the longest: tail very long, 

 its quills rough and elastic : legs short, strong, and set far back ; tar- 

 sus shorter than the middle and outer toe, which are of equal length, 

 all the toes inclosed in a single web." 



The darters are found on the banks of retired, still, and shady 

 rivers, in low and swampy districts : they feed on fish, which they 

 catch by darting at them with their sharp bill and long vibratory neck : 

 sometimes they stand motionless for hours on the limb of a tree or a 

 stump projecting over the water, and, like the heron, watch patiently 

 for fish. Wilson says, " they crawl from the water upon the limbs, 



