The Oriental Darter or Indian Darter (Anhinga melanogaster ) is a water bird of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia. It has a long and slender neck with a straight, pointed bill and like a cormorant, it hunts for fish while it hunts with its body submerged in water. It spears fish underwater, brings it to the surface and tosses it into the air before swallowing. The body remains submerged as it swims and the slender neck alone is visible above the water leading to its other name of snakebird. Like the cormorants, it has wettable feathers and it is often found perched on a rock or branch with its wings held open to dry.
Read more about Oriental Darter: Description, Taxonomy, Behaviour and Ecology
Famous quotes containing the word oriental:
“Since the Greeks, Western man has believed that Being, all Being, is intelligible, that there is a reason for everything ... and that the cosmos is, finally, intelligible. The Oriental, on the other hand, has accepted his existence within a universe that would appear to be meaningless, to the rational Western mind, and has lived with this meaninglessness. Hence the artistic form that seems natural to the Oriental is one that is just as formless or formal, as irrational, as life itself.”
—William Barrett (b. 1913)