306 
PELECANIN^. TACHYPETES. 
421. 1. Plotus anhinga, Linn. American Anhinga. — Snake- 
Bird. 
Plate CCCXVI. Male and Female. 
Upper mandible dusky, lower bright yellow ; gular sac orange ; 
tarsus and toes dusky olive, the hind parts and webs yellow j general 
colour of head, neck, and body, glossy blackish-green, of the scapu- 
lars, wings, and tail, glossy bluish-black ; long loose feathers on the 
neck purplish-white ; lower part of neck behind marked with very 
numerous minute oblong spots of white, forming two broad bands, 
extending backwards, and gradually becoming more elongated, there 
being one along tbe centre of each feather, including the scapulars ; 
smaller wing-coverts similarly marked with broader white spots dis- 
posed in regular rows ; first row of small coverts and secondary coverts 
white, excepting a portion of the inner web ; five elongated seconda- 
ries marked with a narrow white band ; occupying the inner half of 
the outer web ; tail-feathers tipped with a band of brownish-red fading 
into white. Female with only a few inconspicuous elongated feathers 
on the neck ; upper part of head and hind neck dull greenish-brown, 
lighter on the lower part ; fore part of neck pale reddish-brown, tinged 
with grey, lighter on the throat, that colour extending over part of the 
breast, and terminating abruptly in a transverse band of deep reddish- 
chestnut ; the other parts as in the male, only the fore part of the 
back is tinged with brown, and its spots are less distinct, 
Male, 35 1, 44. Female, 34, 43. 
Constant resident from Florida to Georgia ; in summer as far east as 
North Carolina, and up the Mississippi to Natchez. Common. 
Plotus Anhinga, Bonap. Syn. p. 411. 
Black-bellied Darter, Plotus melanogaster, WiLs. Amer. Orn. v. ix. p. 75. 
Black-bellied Darter, Nott. Man, v. ii. p. 507. 
Anhinga or Snake-Bird, Plotus Anhinga, Au». Orn. Biog. v. iv. p. 136. 
GENUS IIL TACHYPETES, Vieill. FRIGATE BIRD, 
Bill longer than the head, strong, broader than high, un- 
less towards the curved extremity ; upper mandible with its 
dorsal line slightly concave, at the tip decurved, its ridge 
broad and nearly flat at the base, narrowed and more con- 
vex towards the end, the sides separated from the ridge by 
a narrow groove, convex, the edges sharp, direct, irregularly 
jagged, with a prominence at the commencement of the 
curve at the elongated, compressed, tapering, decurved point ; 
lower mandible with the angle extremely long, narrow, the 
membrane bare and dilatable into a small pouch, the very 
