AMERICAN ANHINGA 
163 
eggs of frogs, water-lizards, young alligators, water-snakes, and small terra- 
pins. I never observed any sand or gravel in the stomach. On some occa- 
sions I found it distended to the utmost, and, as I have already stated, the 
bird has great powers of digestion. Its excrements are voided in a liquid 
state, and squirted to a considerable distance, as in Cormorants, Hawks, 
and all birds of prey. 
The flesh of the Anhinga, after the bird is grown, is dark, firm, oily, and 
unfit for food, with the exception of the smaller pectoral muscles of the 
female, which are white and delicate. The crimpings of the two middle 
tail-feathers become more deeply marked during the breeding season, espe- 
cially in the male. When young, the female shews them only in a slight 
degree, and never has them so decided as the male. 
Plotus Anhinga, Bonap. Syn., p. 411. 
Black-bellied Darter, Plotus melanog aster , Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. ix. p. 75. 
Black-bellied Darter, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 507. 
Anhinga or Snake-bird, Plotus Anhinga , Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 136. 
Male, 35|, 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. 
Adult Male. 
Bill about twice the length of the head, almost straight, being very slight- 
ly recurved, rather slender, compressed, tapering to a fine point. Upper 
mandible with the dorsal outline slightly declinate, and almost straight, 
being however somewhat convex, the ridge convex, gradually narrowed, 
the sides sloping, the edges sharp, and beyond the middle cut into minute 
slender-pointed serratures, which are directed backwards ; the tips very 
slender. Lower mandible with the angle very long and narrow, the dorsal 
line beyond it straight and ascending, the sides sloping slightly outwards, 
the edges sharp and serrated like those of the upper, the point extremely 
narrow ; the gap line slightly ascending towards the end. No external 
nostrils. 
Head very small, oblong. Neck very long and slender. Body elongated 
and slender. Feet very short and stout. Tibia feathered to the joint. 
Tarsus very short, roundish, reticulated all over, the scales on the hind part 
extremely small. Toes all connected by webs ; the first of moderate length, 
the second much longer, the fourth longest and slightly margined externally ; 
the first toe, and the first phalanges of the rest, covered above with transverse 
series of scales, the rest of their extent scutellate. Claws rather large, very 
strong, compressed, curved, very acute ; the outer smallest, the third longest, 
with a deep groove on the inner side, and a narrow thin edge, cut with 
parallel slits ; those of the first and second toes nearly equal. 
