DARTER, OR SNAKE BIRD. 
249 
GENUS LXVII. — PLOTUS, Linn^us. 
289 . PLOTUS ANHINGA, LINNAEUS, 
PLOT US MELANOGASTER , WILSON. 
DARTER, OR SNAKE BIRD.* 
WILS. PL. LXXIV. FIG. I. MALE. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
Head, neck, whole body, above and below, of a deep 
shining’ black, with a green gloss, the plumage extremely 
soft and agreeable to the touch ; the commencement of 
the back is ornamented with small, oblong, ashy white 
spots, which pass down the shoulders, increasing in size 
according to the size of the feathers, and running down 
the scapulars ; wings and tail of a shining black, the 
latter broadly tipt with dirty white ; the lesser coverts 
are glossed with green, and are spotted with ashy white ; 
the last ro w of the lesser coverts, and the coverts of the 
secondaries, are chiefly ashy white, which forms a large 
bar across the wing ; the outer web of the large scapulars 
is crimped ; tail, rounded, the two under feathers the 
shortest, the two upper feathers, for the greater part of 
their length, beautifully crimped on their outer webs, 
the two next feathers in a slight degree so ; bill, dusky 
at the base and above ; the upper mandible brownish 
yellow at the sides, the lower mandible yellow ochre; 
inside of the mouth dusky ; irides, dark crimson ; the 
orbit of the eye, next to the plumage of the head, is of 
a greenish blue 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 the eyeball ; 
lores, greenish blue; naked skin in front black ; j ugular 
pouch, jet black ; hindhead subcrested ; along the sides 
of the neck there runs a line of loose unwebbed feathers 
of a dingy ash colour, resembling the plumage of callow 
* Named in the plate, Black-bellied Darter. The article is the 
composition of Mr Ord. 
