142 A N H I N G A OR SNAKE- BIRD.
ed the Kloridaa, added nothing, of'' importance beyond giving more ao-
«•uratWrncasuTCtnents of a single specimen than Wilson had given from
the stuffed skins from which he made his figures, and which were in
the museum of that city.
The peeuHar- form, long wings, and. large tkn-liko tail: of the Anhinga,
would at once indue© a person looking upon it to eoncliidci that
it was intended fey nature rather for protracted and powerful flight, than
foi spending as il does more than half of its time by day in tin: water,
where its piogress, one might suppose, would be greatly impeded -by
the amplitude of these parts. Yet how different from such a supposition
is the fact •? i The Anhinga in truth is the very first of ail freshwater
divers. - 'With tile quickness of thought it disappears beneath
the surface, and that ¿0 as scarcely to leave, a ripple on the spot ; and
when your anxious eves seek around for the bird, you are astonished
to find it many hundred yards distant, the head perhaps merely aliovo
water fern, a inonienti;-.or. you may chance, to perocive the bill- alone
gently'cutting the;water, ¡and producing a lino of wake-not observable
beyond (he distance of thirty yards from where.you are standing. With
habits like these it easily eludes ail:your efforts to procure it.' When
shot at while perched, however, severely wounded they may be, they
fell at once perpendicularly, the bi-U dowmvard, 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 thorn again,
and set out in pursuit, tlicy dive ¡Jong the shores, attach themselves to
r o o t t of trees or plants by the feet, and so romain until life is extinct.
When shot dead on the trees, thoy.sometimes cling so, firmly to the
branches that you m u s t wait some-minutes before they fell.
The generally received opinion or belief that the Anhinga always
swims with its body sunk beneath the surface is quite incorrect ; for i t
¡does » o n l y 'wh e n in sight'of an enemy, and when under«® apprehension
<of danger it is as buoyant as any other diving bird, such as a Cormorant,
a Merganser, a. Grebe, or a Diver. . This erroneous opinion
taSi- however, been adopted simply because few persons have watched
the bird with sufficient «are. When it first -observes an enemy, it immediately
sinks its body deeper* in the manner of the birds just-mentioned,
and the nearer thé -danger approaches, the more does it-sink,
until at last it swims off with the head and neck only above the surface,
when-thèse parts, from their form'-and;'peculiar -sinuous- motion,
A N H I N G A OR SNAKE-BIRD. 143
somewhat resemble the head and part of the body, of a snake. It is in
fact from, this- eircumstajice that the Anhinga has received the name of
Snake-Bird. At such a time, itis-seen constantly turning its Head from
side to side, often opening its hill as if for) the purpose of inhaling a
larger quantity of air, to enable it the better to dive, and-remain under
water so long that when it-next makes its appearance it is out- of- your
reach. When fishing -in a «ate of security it dives precisely like a
Cormorant, returns to the surface as soon as- it has procured a fish of
other article-of .food, shakes it> if it is not too'large often throws it -up
into the air, and ieceiving it conveniently in the bill, swallows it at
Ones, and recommntjc.'S'its search. But I doubt much if it 'ever, seizes
on any 1hii1gtl1ai.it cannot tlras swallow «hole. They have the curious
habit of* diving under any floating- substances, such as parcels of dead
weeds or l e a v e d trees--which have accidentally been accumulated by
the winds ¡¿¡currents, fir aven the green slimy substances produced by
putrefaction.- This habit is continued-by the species when in a perfect
state of domestication, for I have seen one kept by my friend John
Bachmas thus diving when within a-few feet of a quantity of'floating
rice-chaff, in one of'the tide-ponds in ««'neighbourhood of Charleston-.
Like the Common -Goose, it invariably depresses its head while swimming
under a low bridge,- or a branch or trunk of *a free hanging over
the water. When it swims beneath the surface of the water, it spreads
its-Wings partially, but does not employ them as a means of propulsion,
and keeps its tail always considerably expanded, using the feet-as
paddles either simultaneously or alternately.
The quantity of fish consumed by this bird is astonishing; and
what;® am about to relate §g this: subject will appear equally so. One
morning Dr Bachman and I gave to an Anhinga a Black Fish, measuring
nine and a half inches, by two inches in diameter; and although
the head of the fish was considerably larger than its body, and its
strong and spinous fins appeared formidable^'the 'bird, which was then
about seven months old, swallowed it entire, head foremost. It was
in appearance digested in ad hour and a half, when the bird swallowed
three others Of somewhat smaller size. At another time, we placed
before it a number of fishes about seven and a half inches long, of which
it swallowed nine in succession. It would devour at a meal forty or
more fishes about three inches and a half long. On several occasions
it was fed on Plaice; when it swallowed some that were four inches