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BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
DARTERS: Family Anhingidae 
In the Darters the gular sack is moderate in size. 
WATER TURKEY: Anhmga anhrnga (Linnaeus) 
Description. — Length: 32.2-36 inches, wing about 14, tail 11, bill 3.2. Bill 
long, slender, and sharp-pointed; head very small; neck long and snake-like. Adult 
male: Glossy greenish black; upperparts marked with silver-gray; back of head 
and neck plumed in breeding season. Adult female: Foreparts brownish, throat 
and breast buffy. Young: Like female, but black replaced by brown and silver- 
gray markings restricted and bordered with brownish. 
Range. —Tropical and subtropical regions of North and South America. Breeds 
from Lower Sonoran Zone of Texas, southern Illinois, North Carolina, and Florida 
south to Tropical America; winters at least as far north as Arkansas and Alabama; 
casually to Kansas; accidental in New Mexico and Arizona. 
State Records. —While the Water Turkey is a tropical species coming north 
regularly only to the Gulf States, two stragglers that had wandered more than 
five hundred miles from the nearest breeding place were seen in September, 1854, 
at Fort Thorn, and the one that was captured was sent to the United States National 
Museum (Henry).—W. W. Cooke. 
General Habits. —The reptilian looking Water Turkeys, Black 
Darters or Snake Birds nest in pairs or in large colonies, Doctor Coues 
says in his Key, in “the most impenetrable swamps of warm coun¬ 
tries/' where they dive and swim under water after fish like the loons 
and cormorants, or swim “with the body submerged, only the head 
and neck in sight, looking like some strange kind of water-serpent.” 
It is a pleasure to be able to include this unique bird in the State list, 
though only as an accidental wanderer, and its discovery should stimu¬ 
late observers to keep a sharp lookout for other interesting passersby. 
Doctor Grinnell, in a suggestive article on “The Role of the Acciden¬ 
tal/’ says they may be serving as “sensitive tentacles, by which the 
species keeps aware of the possibilities of aerial expansion” (1922, pp. 
373-380). 
Additional Literature—Bent, A. C., U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 121, 229-236, 
1922.— Chapman, F. M., Camps and Cruises of an Ornithologist, 113-122, 1908 
(nesting). 
HERONS, STORKS, IBISES, etc.: Order Ciconiiformes 
HERONS, BITTERNS, etc.: Family Ardeidae 
The Herons and Bitterns have highly developed powder-down tracts 
“of oily specialized under down” (Forbush); the lower hind neck is often 
bare and the feathers are long and loose. The bill is sharp pointed and 
straight or nearly so, the forehead feathered but the lores bare. The 
head, neck, and body are narrow, wings long, ample, toes long, slender, 
middle toenail with distinct comb-like edge. In flight the head is 
usually drawn in and the neck folded close to the breast. 
