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MERGANSERIN^. 



GOOSANDERS AND ALLIED SPECIES. 



Intimately allied, in many respects, to the Anatinse and 

 Fuligulinse, and in others to the Divers and Cormorants, 

 the Mergansers, although few in number, seem yet to form 

 a very distinct family. 



They are generally characterised by having the body 

 large, elongated, elliptical, and depressed ; the neck long and 

 slender ; the head oblong, compressed, and anteriorly nar- 

 rowed. Their bill is rather long, straight, or a little rearcuate, 

 slender, higher than broad at the base, tapering, and toward 

 the end becoming nearly cylindrical, the edges of both man- 

 dibles furnished with lamellae much narrower than in the 

 Ducks, and in the larger species conical, acuminate, and 

 directed backwards, so as to resemble the teeth of an Indian 

 saw ; the unguis oblong, of the same breadth as the mandibles, 

 and the upper abruptly decurved. The mouth, although 

 narrow, is dilatable ; the tongue fleshy, narrow, furnished 

 with lateral bristles, and having the tip lacerated ; the palate 

 and pharynx papillate. The oesophagus is very wide in its 

 whole extent, with thick walls ; the proventricular glandules 

 are small, and form a broad belt, at the upper margin of 

 Avhich, as well as here and there in the oesophagus, are large 

 mucous crypts. The stomach is rather small, roundish, very 

 muscular, with a thick rugous epithelium. The intestine is 

 long, and rather wide, with moderately large cceca, and a 

 globular cloaca* 



The trachea, composed of numerous well-ossified rings, 

 is simple and uniform in the females, but in the males vari- 

 ously enlarged, and always having an enormous dilatation at 

 its lower extremity, partly bony and partly membranous ; the 



