Upper mandible dusky, lower bright yellow; gular sac orange; tarsus and toes dusky olive, the hind parts and webs yellow; general colour of head, neck, and body, glossy blackish-green, of the scapulars, wings, and tail, glossy bluish-black; long loose feathers on the neck purplish-white; lower part of neck behind marked with very numerous minute oblong spots of white, forming two broad bands, extending backwards, and gradually becoming more elongated, there being one along the centre of each feather, including the scapulars; smaller wing-coverts similarly marked with broader white spots disposed in regular rows; first row of small coverts and secondary coverts white, excepting a portion of the inner web; five elongated secondaries marked with a narrow white band; occupying the inner half of the outer web; tail-feathers tipped with a band of brownish-red fading into white. Female with only a few inconspicuous elongated feathers on the neck; upper part of head and hind neck dull greenish-brown, lighter on the lower part; fore part of neck pale reddish-brown, tinged with grey, lighter on the throat, that colour extending over part of the breast, and terminating abruptly in a transverse band of deep reddish-chestnut; the other parts as in the male, only the fore part of the back is tinged with brown, and its spots are less distinct. _Male_, 35-3/4, 44. _Female_, 34, 43. Constant resident from Florida to Georgia; in summer as far east as North Carolina, and up the Mississippi to Natchez. Common. Plotus Anhinga, Bonap. Syn. p. 411. Black-bellied Darter, Plotus melanogaster, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. ix. p. 75. Black-bellied Darter, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 507. Anhinga or Snake-Bird, Plotus Anhinga, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iv. p. 136. GENUS III. TACHYPETES, Vieill. FRIGATE BIRD.