SNAKE-BIRD. 
245 
colour, this passes round, in the form of a zigzag band, across the 
front — the next colour is black, which entirely surrounds the eye ; 
eyelids of a bright azure, running into violet next to the eye ball ; 
lores greenish blue; naked skin in front black; jugular pouch 
jet black ; hind-head siibcrested ; along the sides of the neck there 
runs a line of loose unwebbed feathers, of a dingy ash colour, re- 
sembling the plumage of callow young, here and there on the up- 
per part of the neck one perceives a feather of the same ; on the 
forehead there is a small knob or protuberance ; the neck, near its 
centre, takes a singular bend, in order to enable the bird to dart 
forward its bill, with velocity, when it takes its prey; legs and feet 
of a yellowish clay colour, the toes, and the hind part of the legs, 
with a dash of dusky ; claws greatly falcated ; when the wings are 
closed, they extend to the centre of the tail. 
Length from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail two feet 
ten inches,^ breadth three feet ten inches ; bill to the angle of the 
mouth full four inches ; tail ten inches and a half, composed of 
twelve broad and stiff feathers. Weight three pounds and a half. 
The serratures of the bill are extremely sharp, so much so, 
that when one applies tow, or such like substance, to the bird’s 
mouth, it is with difficulty disengaged. 
The lower mandible and throat, as in the Divers, are capable 
of great expansion, to facilitate the swallowing of fish, which con- 
stitute the food of this species. The position of these birds, when 
standing, is like that of the Gannets. 
The above description was taken from a fine adult male speci- 
men, which was shot by my fellow traveller, Mr. T. Peale, on the 
first of March, 1818, in a creek below the Cow Ford, situated on 
^ The admeasurement of the specimen described in tlie first edition of this work was 
made by Wilson himself, from the stuffed bird in Peale’s Museum. It differs considerably 
from that described above ; but as our specimen was a very fine one, there is room to conjec- 
ture that there was some error in the admeasurement of the former, ours being described imme- 
diately after death. 
3 Q 
VOL. IX. 
