AMERICAN - ANHINGA. 
157 
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 the 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. 
