AVES 



589 



or aigrettes on the head which were formerly hunted for millinery- 

 trade until the birds were almost extinct. Fortunately this has been 

 prohibited and the birds are reported as on the increase. 



Anseriformcs (Ducks, Geese, Swans, and Mergansers). — These are 

 swimming birds with short legs and completely webbed toes. The 

 bill is rather broad and flattened. Nearly all of them are strong, 

 swift fliers, and are excellent game and food birds. There are more 

 than two hundred species of these ducklike birds, and many of them 

 frequent the waters of the United States. Geese and swans are some- 

 what larger than ducks. They migrate to the Southern States for 

 the winter, flying in V-shaped formation. 





Fig. 311. — One of the "blue darters," Cooper's hawk, Acciinter cooperi. (From Met- 

 calf, Textbook of Economic Zoology, published by Lea and Febiger, after Snyder.) 



Falconiformes (Birds of Prey). — In this order there are three 

 families of these strong birds with powerful wings, stout hooked bills, 

 and strong claws. It includes vultures, eagles, hawks, falcons, kites, 

 and ospreys. The turkey vulture (buzzard) and black vulture are 

 common birds of the Southwest. The California vulture, Pseudo- 

 gryphus calif ornianus , and the condor of the Andes Mountains of 

 South America are very large birds. Most of our species of hawks. 



