448 AMERICAN ANHINGA. 



when the bird swallowed three others of somewhat smaller size. At another 

 time, we placed before it a number of fishes about seven and a half inches 

 long, of which it swallowed nine in succession. It would devour at a meal 

 forty or more fishes about three inches and a half long. On several occasions 

 it was fed on Plaice, when it swallowed some that were four inches broad, 

 extending its throat, and compressing them during their descent into the 

 stomach. It did not appear to relish eels, as it eat all the other sorts first, 

 and kept them to the last; and after having swallowed them, it had great 

 difficulty in keeping them down, but, although for awhile thwarted, it would 

 renew its efforts, and at length master them. When taken to the tide-pond 

 at the foot of my friend's garden, it would now and then after diving return 

 to the surface of the water with a cray-fish in its mouth, which it pressed 

 hard and dashed about in its bill, evidently for the purpose of maiming it, 

 before it would attempt to swallow it, and it never caught a fish without 

 bringing it up to subject it to the same operation. 



While residing near Bayou Sara, in the State of Mississippi, I was in the 

 habit of occasionally visiting some acquaintances residing at Pointe Coupe, 

 nearly opposite the mouth of the bayou. One day, on entering the house of 

 an humble settler close on the western bank of the Mississippi, I observed 

 two young Anhingas that had been taken out of a nest containing four, which 

 had been built on a high cypress in a lake on the eastern side of the river. 

 They were perfectly tame and gentle, and much attached to their foster- 

 parents, the man and woman of the house, whom they followed wherever 

 they went. They fed with equal willingness on shrimps and fish, and when 

 neither could be had, contented themselves with boiled Indian corn, of which 

 they caught with great ease the grains as they were thrown one by one to 

 them. I was afterwards informed, that when a year old, they were allowed 

 to go to the river and fish for themselves, or to the ponds on either side, and 

 that they regularly returned towards night for the purpose of roosting on the 

 top of the house. Both birds were males, and in time they fought hard 

 battles, but at last each met with a female, which it enticed to the roost on 

 the house-top, where all the four slept at night for awhile. Soon after, the 

 females having probably laid their eggs in the woods, they all disappeared, 

 and were never again seen by the persons who related this curious affair. 



The Anhinga moves along the branches of trees rather awkwardly; but 

 still it walks there, with the aid of its wings, which it extends for that 

 purpose, and not unfrequently also using its bill in the manner of a Parrot. 

 On the land, it walks and even runs with considerable ease, certainly with 

 more expertness than the Cormorant, though much in the same style. But 

 it does not employ its tail to aid it, for, on the contrary, it carries that organ 

 inclined upwards, and during its progress from one place to another, the 



