Bill scarcely as long as the head, slender, dusky; tail of twelve feathers; gular sac and bare skin on the head, bright orange; plumage silky and splendent, deep green, seeming black in some lights and bright green and purple in others, the somewhat compact feathers of the back edged with dark purple; along the sides of the neck and the hind part of the sides of the body, numerous white piliform feathers terminated by a pencil of filaments; quills and tail-feathers brownish-black and less glossy. This description from an individual shot in October.
Female, 27; wing 10; tail 51/2.
Cape Disappointment, near Columbia River. Abundant.
Violet-green Cormorant, Phalacrocorax resplendens, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. v. p. 148.
GENUS II. PLOTUS, Linn. ANHINGA.
Bill about twice the length of the head, almost straight, being very slightly recurved, rather slender, compressed, tapering to a fine point; upper mandible with the dorsal line slightly declinate, very slightly convex, the ridge convex, gradually narrowed, the sides sloping, the edges sharp, and beyond the middle cut into minute slender-pointed serratures directed backwards, the tip acuminate; 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, the point extremely narrow; gape-line ascending towards the end. No external nostrils in the adult. Head very small, oblong; neck very long and slender; body elongated and slender. Feet very short and stout; tibia feathered to the point; tarsus very short, roundish, reticulated; toes all connected by webs, the first of moderate length, the fourth longest, the first toe and the first phalanges of the rest with transverse series of scales; the rest of their extent scutellate. Claws rather large, very strong, compressed, curved, very acute, the third with parallel slits on the inner edge. A bare space at the base of the upper mandible, including the eye; skin of the throat bare and dilated, as in the Cormorants. Plumage close, blended, silky, the feathers oblong; scapulars elongated, lanceolate, compact, the outer web of the largest undulated. Wings of moderate length and breadth; third quill longest, inner secondaries elongated and resembling the posterior scapulars. Tail very long, narrow, of twelve straight feathers, having very strong shafts, and increasing in breadth to the end. Tongue a slight oblong knob; œsophagus very wide; proventricular glands placed on the right side in the form of a globular sac; stomach roundish, of moderate size, rather thin, with its inner coat soft and smooth; a large roundish pyloric lobe; intestine long and very slender; no cœca, but a small rounded termination to the rectum.
421. 1. Plotus anhinga, Linn. American Anhinga.—Snake-Bird.
Plate CCCXVI. Male and Female.