FEMALE DARTER, OR SNAKE BIRD. 253 
290 . PLOTUS MEL AN OG ASTER, WILSON. 
FEMALE BLACK-BELLIED DARTER, OR SNAKE BIRD.* 
WILSON, PLATE LXXIV. FIG. II. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
The female darter measures three feet five inches in 
length, and differs in having the neck before of a roan 
colour or iron gray, the breast the same, hut lighter, 
and tinged with pale chestnut ; the belly as in the male ; 
where the iron gray joins the black on the belly there 
is a narrow band of chestnut ; upper head and back of 
the neck, dark sooty brown, streaked with blackish ; 
cheeks and chin, pale yellow ochre ; in every other 
respect the same as the male, except in having only a 
few slight tufts of hair along the side of the neck ; the 
tail is twelve inches long to its insertion, generally 
spread out like a fan, and crimped like the other on the 
outer vanes of the middle feathers only. 
The above is a description of the supposed female 
darter, which is preserved in Feale’s museum. 
The author having written to Mr John Abbott of 
Georgia, relative to this species, and some others, 
received from this distinguished naturalist a valuable 
communication, from which the following extract is 
made : — “Both the darters I esteem as but one species. 
I have now b}^ me a drawing of the male, or black- 
bellied, only, but have had specimens of both at the 
same time. I remember that the upper parts of the 
female were similar to those of the male, except that 
the colour and markings were not so pure and distinct; 
length, thirty -six inches, extent, forty-six. These birds 
frequent the ponds, rivers, and creeks, during the 
summer ; build in the trees of the swamps, and those 
of the islands in the ponds ; they construct their nests 
of sticks ; eggs of a sky blue colour. I inspected a nest, 
which was not very large ; it contained two eggs and 
six young ones, the latter varying much in size ; they 
* This article was written by Mr Ord. 
