446 AMERICAN ANHINGA. 



in the midst of some stagnant pool; and this situation they seem to select 

 because there they can enjoy the first gladdening rays of the morning sun, 

 or bask in the blaze of its noontide splendour, and also observe with greater 

 ease the approach of their enemies, as they betake themselves to it after 

 feeding, and remain there until hunger urges them to fly off. There, trusting 

 to the extraordinary keenness of their beautiful bright eyes in spying the 

 marauding sons of the forest, or the not less dangerous enthusiast, who, 

 probably like yourself, would venture through mud and slime up to his very 

 neck, to get within rifle shot of a bird so remarkable in form and manners, 

 the Anhingas, or " Grecian Ladies," stand erect, with their wings and tail 

 fully or partially spread out in the sunshine, whilst their long slender necks 

 and heads are thrown as it were in every direction by the most curious and 

 sudden jerks and bendings. Their bills are open, and you see that the 

 intense heat of the atmosphere induces them to suffer their gular pouch to 

 hang loosely. What delightful sights and scenes these have been to me, 

 good reader ! With what anxiety have I waded toward these birds, to watch 

 their movements, while at the same time I cooled my over-heated body, and 

 left behind on the shores myriads of hungry sand-flies, gnats, mosquitoes, 

 and ticks, that had annoyed me for hours! 



The peculiar form, long wings, and large fan-like tail of the Anhinga, 

 would at once induce a person looking upon it to conclude that it was 

 intended by nature rather for protracted and powerful flight, than for 

 spending as it does more than half of its time by day in the water, where its 

 progress, one might suppose, would be greatly impeded by the amplitude of 

 these parts. Yet how different from such a supposition is the fact? The 

 Anhinga in truth is the very first of all fresh-water divers. With the 

 quickness of thought it disappears beneath the surface, and that so as 

 scarcely to leave a ripple on the spot; and when your anxious eyes seek 

 around for the bird, you are astonished to find it many hundred yards 

 distant, the head perhaps merely above water for a moment; or you may 

 chance to perceive the bill alone gently cutting the water, and producing a 

 line of wake not observable beyond the distance of thirty yards from where 

 you are standing. With habits like these it easily eludes all your efforts to 

 procure it. When shot at while perched, however severely wounded they 

 may be, they fall at once perpendicularly, the bill downward, the wings and 

 tail closed, and then dive and make their way under water to such a distance 

 that they are rarely obtained. Should you, however, see them again, and 

 set out in pursuit, they dive along the shores, attach themselves to roots of 

 trees or plants by ihe feet, and so remain until life is extinct. When shot 

 dead on the trees, they sometimes cling so firmly to the branches that you 

 must wait some minutes before they fall. 



