that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 499 
habits. I shall only remark, with respect to the affinities that pre- 
vail throughout the families of this order, that the more extensive 
subdivisions of the Linnean Anas, which have been acknowledged 
by all systematic writers, either under the name of sections or 
genera, display in conjunction with Mergus a regular series of 
affinities conformable to the principles I have ventured to advance 
as regulating the order. The first group upon which we enter 
in this first aberrant family of the order, has been formed into a 
sectional subdivision by M.Temminck, according to his peculiar 
mode of nomenclature, under the denomination of ** Les Oies;" 
and with equal signification and more effect has been made into 
a genus, under the title of Anser, by M. Illiger, who therein fol- 
lowed the older naturalists that preceded Linnzus. These birds 
retain much of the manners of the Waders, from which we have 
lately parted. They are endowed with considerable facility in 
walking, are found to swim but seldom, and they do not dive at 
all*. In these characters, as well as in other particulars to be 
observed hereafter, they correspond with the family of Laride, 
which meets them at the other extremity of the circle of Natatores. 
To this division succeeds Cereopsis, Lath., strongly allied to the 
preceding Anseres by its general structure, but still more typical 
in the family in consequence of the length and nakedness of the 
tarsi above the knee: characters which indicate a greater power 
of walking, and a greater deficiency in swimming. It joins the 
third division, or the genuine Anates, by means of a group of 
which Anas arboreat, Linn. is the representative. : This third 
* « [Is vivent dans les prairies et dans les marais, nagent peu, et ne plongent point.” 
Temminck, Man. p. 816.—In addition to Anser, this first division contains Cygnus, 
Briss., together with A. bernicla, and its congeners. 
+ * D'autres espèces, (4. arborea, viduata, &c.)—— ont avec le bec des canards 
des jambes plus hautes mêmes que celles des oies; elles se perchent et nichent sur des 
arbres." Cuv. Regne Anim. i. p. 538. 
VOL. XIV. ST and 
