THE DARTER. 
235 
Family PLOTIDiE. 
Genus PLOTUS, Linn, 
605. PLOTUS MELANOGASTER. 
THE DARTER. 
Anhinga melanogaster, Pemi. in Forst. Ind. Zool. p. 22, pi. 12. Plotus mela- 
nogaster, Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 865 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 661 ; Salvad. 
Ucc. Born. p. 367 ; Hume, S. F. iii. p. 194 ; Bl B. Burm. p. 165 ; Oates, S. F. 
V. p. 170; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 1194; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. vi. p. 496; Anders. 
Yunnan Exped. p. 698 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 116 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 248. 
Description. — Male. Chin, throat, the upper part of the fore neck, and 
a narrow line about five inches in length from the head down the sides of 
the neck white ; the head and neck marked with minute streaks of black, 
brown, whitish and ruf escent ; the lower part of the front of the neck and 
the whole lower plumage glossy black ; primaries, secondaries and tail black 
tinged with green, the latter with the central feathers rayed across ; upper 
back glossy brownish black, the feathers very narrowly margined with 
rufescent, the lateral parts streaked with white ; wing-coverts, scapulars 
and tertiaries glossy blacky each feather with a long narrow mesial white 
streak ; lower back, rump and upper tail-coverts greenish black. 
The female has the plumage of the same general colour as the male, but 
the neck is more fulvous ; the black on the chest is bordered by a yellowish 
band which extends up the neck, and the streaks on the upper plumage are 
yellowish. 
Iris yellow ; legs black ; bill with the upper mandible brown or blackish, 
the lower yellowish. 
Length about 36 inches, tail 10, wing 14, tarsus 1*5, bill from gape 3*8. 
The female is of the same size. 
The Darter or, as it is sometimes called, the Snake-bird is very common 
throughout the Province, being found in all ponds and swamps, and some- 
times in rivers where the current is not strong. 
It is found over the whole of India and Ceylon, the Indo-Burmese 
countries, the Malay peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and Celebes. 
Further south it is replaced by P. novm-hollandice, a closely allied species. 
The Darter lives chiefly in the water, subsisting on fish, which it catches 
by diving. It swims with only the head and a portion of the neck exposed 
to view. It breeds in large societies and I found hundreds of them nest- 
ing in the Myitkyo swamp in August on dead trees standing in the water. 
The eggs, three or four in number, are dull chalky white. 
