STEGANOPODES: TOTIPALMATE BIRDS. 951 



waved with dusky. Liuiug of wings and axillars wliite. Enlarged white doubly black-barred 

 feathers in front of wing. A white speculum, with two black bars, the white being on outer 

 webs of secondaries and ends of these and greater coverts ; inner secondaries black, with white 

 median stripe. Young ^ similar to 9- Adult 9 '• i^ill dusky, with orange base below. Head 

 and neck grayish-chestnut, darker brown on crown; throat and under parts whitish; back and 

 sides dusky- brown, the latter not undulated, the feathers generally with paler edges. No black 

 and white bars before wing; white of wing restricted or impure; speculum crossed with only- 

 one dark bar. Young in down dark brown above, with a pair of whitish spots on back, 

 another pair on rump, and hind edge of wing whitish ; sides of head but!', paler on throat ; fore 

 breast and sides of body dingy, belly white. Length 16.50-18.00; extent about 25.00; wing^ 

 7.00-8.00; tail 4.00; tarsus 1.20; middle toe and claw 2.35; bill 1.50 aUmg culmen, 2.00 

 along gape. North America at large, common ; breeds at large in the U. S., as well as farther 

 north; winters in the IJ. S., Mexico, and Cuba; casual in Europe. This beautiful species 

 usually if not always nests in holes in trees or stumps like the Wood Duck and some others, 

 the young, it is said, being transjjorted to the water in the bill of the mother. Eggs 6-10 or 

 more, 2.05 X 1-70, white or faintly buft'y, and more rounded than those of the foregoing. 

 MER'GUS. (Lat. mergus, a diver; mergo, I immerse). Smews. General characters of 

 the foregoing Mergansers, but bill very short, less along culmen than length of tarsus. Tail 

 of 16 feathers. Size small. A slight crest. Colors white and black in ^. One species, of 

 the Old ^Vorld, only a straggler in America. (Not in former eds. of the Key. Mergellus 

 Kaup; Selby, 1840.) 



M. albel'lus. (Lat. dim. of albus, white.) White Merganser. White Nun. Smew. 

 Adult ^ : Pure white ; glossy greenish-black patch about eye, and V-shaped mark of the 

 same on back of head ; back, rump, two crescents on each side of fore breast, secondaries^ 

 and wing-coverts in part, black ; tail and its coverts ashy-gray. Bill and feet slate-gray. 

 Length 16.50; extent about 23.00 ; wing 7.75; bill little over 1.00. Adult 9- Smaller than 

 ^, with less crest; upper parts and sides of body ashy-gray, darkest on lower back; head 

 reddish-brown, shading on sides into the wliite of under parts, which arc shaded with gray 

 across fore breast ; markings of wings nearly as in (J. A well known bird of Europe and Asia, 

 of casual occurrence only in North America, though given as North American by most of the 

 early writers. Audubon records and figures a 9 taken l)y himself near New Orleans, winter 

 of 1819; another is in the British Museum, received from the Hudson's Bay Co. (Not hitherto 

 admitted to the Key. A. 0. U. List, Eighth Suppl. Jan. 1897, p. 118, No. [131.1].) 



Order STEGANOPODES: Totipalmate Birds. 



Feet totipalmate, witii 3 full webs (as in fig. 52, for example); hind toe semi-lateral, 

 larger and lower down than in other water birds, connected icith inner toe by a complete iveb 

 reaching from tip to tip. Nostrils minute, rudimentary, or entirely abortive. A gular pouch. 

 Bill not membranous nor lamellate; tomia sometimes serrate.; usually, a long sulcus on upper 

 mandible reaching alongside culmen nearly to tij) of bill, which is commonly hooked with a 

 more or less distinct nail ; moiitli much cleft. 



This is a definite and perfectly natural group, which will be immediately recognized by 

 the foregoing characters, (uie of which, complete webbing of hallux, is not elsewhere observed 

 among birds. It is represented by 6 genera, all in North America, each type of a family- The 

 name Stegauopodcs was given to the order by Illiger in 1811 ; it is akso called Totipalmat(r. and 

 was named D>/!<])oromorphre by Huxley in 1867. 



The nature is altricial (nidicolons). The o<:s^ are few. fn<in<iiil y only one, usually if 

 n-it alu-.i\s plain-colored, and encrusted with a peculiar wliite chalky substance; they are 



