890 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS.- LAMELLIROSTRES- ANSERES. 



parade ; " and the long line of flaming red they present has been likened to the appearance of 

 a prairie-fire at night (see Ingraham's excellent article in World's Congress Papers, Chicago, 

 1896, pp. 59-69). The accompanying illustration, continued from 2d-4th editions of the Key, 

 is erroneous as regards the attitude of a Flamingo upon the nest, unless she be just in the act 

 of stepping down off it ; but it will serve to accentuate the fable which came down to us from 

 Dampier, 1683, was never doubted till 1844, nor positively refuted till 1884 in the case of the 

 European P. antiquorum (Ibis, 1884, p. 88, pi. 4; Key, 2d ed. 1884, p. 679), and for our 

 species only set entirely right in 1888 (Ibis, p. 151); but see also Maynard's Naturalist in 

 Florida, No. 1, 1884. 



Suborder ANSERES: Anskrine Birds Proper. 



(Order Anseres of the A. 0. U.) 



Simply equivalent to Lamellirostres as above defined (p. 887), minus the Grallatorial type 

 (Flamingoes). For further characters, see on, under head of the single 



Family ANATID^ : Swans, Geese, Ducks, and Mergansers. 



Bill lamellate, stout, more or less elevated and compressed at 

 base, widened or flattened at obtuse tip, invested with soft, tough, 

 leathery membrane, except at end, which is furnished with a hard, 

 horny " nail," or dertrum, generally somewhat overhanging, some- 

 times small and distinct, sometimes large and fused — that is, 

 changing insensibly into the general covering. (This soft cover- 

 ing is regarded by some as a prolonged cere, especially well marked 



in the genus Cereopsis ; but this is purely theoretical.) The bill 

 Fig. C23. — Wild Duck. , ° , t , • r i • at i * • 



has a slenderer, more cylmdnc form only m Mergansers and certam 



related diving Ducks. Body full, lieavy, flattened beneath ; neck of variable length ; head 

 large; eyes small. No antise; frontal feathers encroaching on culmen with a convex or 

 pointed outline, and forming other projections on sides of bill and in interramal space, which 

 latter is broad aud long, the mandibular crura being united only at the end by a broad short 

 bridge; no culminal ridge nor keel of gonys. Nostrils subbasal, median, or subterminal, ele- 

 vated, open, naked, usually broadly oval. Wings of moderate length, stifi', strong, pointed, 

 conferring rapid, vigorous, whistling flight ; a wild Duck at full speed is said to make 90 miles 

 an hour, and ordinarily flies at the rate of 50 an hour. In a few cases the wings are excep- 

 tionally so reduced that power of flight is lost. Functional primaries 10, as usual, with a 

 remicle, making the morphological total 11, whereof the 6 inner ones are borne upon the 

 metacarpal bones, 1 is borne on 3d digital bone, 2 on 1st phalanx of 2d digit, and 2 on 2d 

 phalanx of the same digit (one of these two last being the remicle). Secondaries or cubitals 

 about 19 ; 5th wanting, the wing being thus aquiutocubital. The wing is also spurred in 

 certain Geese (as it is in the Anhima). Tail of variable shape, but usually short and rounded, 

 never forked, sometimes cuneate, of 12-24 feathers, usually 14-16; under coverts very long 

 aud full, forming a conspicuous crissal tuft. Legs short ; femora, tibiae and tarsi of approxi- 

 mately equal or not very disproportionate lengths ; knees buried in general integument; tibiae 

 feathered nearly or quite to sufl"rago ; tarsi reticulate or scutellate, or both : toes palmate, 

 the anterior ones normally full-webbed, exceptionally semipalmate ; hinder always present 

 aud free, simple or lobate. 



Like the Gallinaceous, the Anserine type is a familiar one, comprising all kinds of " water- 

 fowl," among which are the originals of all our domestic breeds of Swans, Geese, and Ducks, 

 that vie with ])oultry in point of economic consequence, ornament our parks, or furnish ex- 

 quisite material for wearing apparel, as well as the filling of our pillows and couches. But 



