[ 6lZ 1 



Genus XCVI. DARTER. 



i. White-bellied D. Var. B. Black D. 



i. Black-bellied D. Var. C. Rufous D. 



Var. A. 2- Surinam D. 



ILL long, ftrait, fharp-pointed. 



Noftrils, a long flit placed near the bafe. 

 Face and chin bare of feathers *. 

 Neck of a very great length. 

 Legs fhort : toes four in number, all webbed together. 



i< Plotus Anhinga, Lin.SjJl.i. p. 218. 1. 



^LIED D EL L'Anhinga, Brif. Orn. vi. p. 476. u—Buf. Oif. viii. p. 4+8.— Rail Syn' 



p. 124. 7.- — Will. Orn. p. 332. pi. 72. 



DiiscRiFTiON. HPHIS is fcarce fo big as a Mallard in the body, but meafures 



in length, from the point of the bill to the end of the tail, no 



lefs than two feet ten inches. The bill is three inches long, ftrait, 



* Linnaus fays, that the face is cloathed with feathers, perhaps concluding it 

 to be the cafe, from former authors not having faid to the contrary; but as we 

 have had ocular demonstration of the face being covered only with a barejkin, in 

 three fpecimens of the black-bellied one, from which our figure was taken, there 

 appears the greateft probability of its being the fame alfo in the ntihite-bellied fpe- 

 cies, firft defcribed ; efpecially as the fimilarity of all of them to one another, in 

 general markings, is fo great as to give reafon for the lefs fcrupulous Ornithalogift 

 to place them as varieties arifing from fejc, age, or climate. In the lair, or Su- 

 rinam fpecies, the face is well covered with feathers ; but this bird is a fpecies 

 fomewhat anomalous, and only taken in here as being the genus to which it has 

 the neareft alliance. 



2 and 



