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. lUiger, who therein fol- 

 lowed the older naturalists that preceded Linnaeus. 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 Larida, 

 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 arboreal, Linn, is the representative. This third 



* " lis vivent dans les prairies et dans les marais, nagent peu, et ne plongent point." 

 Temminck, Man. p. 8I6. — In addition to Anser, this first division contains Cygntis, 

 Briss., together with A. bernicla, and its congeners. 



+ " D'autres especes, {A.arborea, viduata, &c.) ont avec le bee des canards 



des jambes plus hautes metnes que celles des oies ; elles se perchent et nichent sur des 

 arbres." Cuv. Regne Atdm. i. p. 538. 



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