892 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — LAMELLIROSTRES — ANSERES. 



Mergansers, some Sea Ducks, and certain maritime Geese, that feed chiefly upon animal sub- 

 stances, are scarcely fit for food ; but the great majority of the Anatidce afford a bounteous 

 supply of sapid meat, a chief dependence, indeed, with the population of some inhospitable 

 regions. Such is the case, for example, in the boreal parts of this continent, whither vast bands 

 of water-fowl resort to breed during the fleeting arctic summer. Their coming marks a season 

 of comparative plenty in places where hunger often pinches the belly, and their warm downy 

 covering is patched into garments almost cold-proof. 



The general traits of Anserine birds are too well known to require more than passing 

 notice. They are salacious to a degree remarkable even in the hot-blooded, passionate class of 

 birds ; a circumstance rendering the production of hybrids frequent, and favoring the study of 

 this subject. Probably a hundred identified hybrids have been recorded, some of them between 

 diS'crent genera, some even between birds we are accustomed to place in different subfamilies ; 

 and in these cases fertility of the mongrel progeny is the rule. If we recall the peculiar actions 

 of Geese nipping herbage, and of Ducks " dabbling " in the water, and know that some species, 

 as Mergansers, pursue fish, and other live prey under water, we have the principal modes of 

 feeding. Nidification is usually on the ground ; sometimes in a hollow tree ; the nest is often 

 warmly lined with live feathers, though otherwise rude; the eggs are smooth, with a peculiar 

 look and feel, as if greasy, and usually of some plain pale color, as greenish, drab, or creamy, 

 less often quite white ; the clutch varies in number, commonly ranging 6-18. The young are 

 clothed with stiffish down, and swim at once. Among Ducks and Mergansers, marked sexual 

 diversity in color is the rule ; the reverse is the case with Swans and Geese. A noteworthy 

 coloration of many species, especially of Ducks, is the speculum ; a brightly colored, generally 

 iridescent, area on the secondary quills, sometimes called the " beauty-spot." Most species 

 are migratory, particularly those of the Northern Hemisphere ; the flight is perfonned in bands, 

 that seem to preserve discipline as well as cojnpaniouship ; and with such regularity that no 

 birds are better entitled to the claim of weather-prophets. 



There are just about 200 well-determined species of Anatidce, inhabiting all parts of the 

 world. They difl"er a good deal in minor details, and represent a number of peculiar genera 

 aside from the ordinary types, though none are so aberrant as to endanger the integrity of the 

 group. It is difficult to establish divisions higher than generic, because Swans, Geese, Ducks, 

 and Mergansers are closely united by intermediate genera. But the 5 groups presented as 

 subfamilies in the following pages, and representing nearly the whole of the family, may be 

 conveniently recognized, and are readily distinguished, so far as our species are concerned. 

 Eleven subfamilies, not all of which are so well marked as our five, are given by the latest 

 monographer (Salvadori, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. vol. xxvii, pp. 23-493, 1895). I may here 

 briefly note the most unconformable exotic types, some of which stand for separate families 

 with certain writers, to whom some things are revealed that it is not given to common mortals 

 to know. 1. The New Zealand fossil genus Cnemiornis is anserine, though first referred to 

 struthious birds, like the Moas, in association with remains of which its own were originally 

 found ; this type is of a separate family Cnemiornithidfe, characterized by the almost ecari- 

 nate sternum, the epicnemial process of the tibia, as in the Loons, and other peculiaritie.s. 

 2. The most remarkable living member of the Anatidce is Cereopsis novce-hollandice, a sort of 

 a Goose, but representing a special subfamily CereopsincB. In this Australian bird the soft 

 skin of the bill may be called a true cere, reaching to the nail at the end, with the nostrils in 

 its anterior part; the form of the body and its members is remarkably stocky; the webs of 

 the toes are incised, and the bird avoids the water, living on dry plains like a Bustard, and 

 subsisting on herbage. 3. Another notable Australian type is Anseranas semipalmata ; like- 

 wise a kind of Goose, type of the subfamily Anseranatince, characterized by the slight webbing 

 of the anterior toes, the long hallux on a level with the other digits, the carunculation of the 

 bill and face, the extreme subcutaneous convolution of the immensely long windpipe (over four 



