WHOOPER SWAN 265 



if the bird were not the representative of an order by itself, it would 

 not have been accorded a notice even of the length of the present one. 

 It will suffice therefore to state that the flamingo is a native of the 

 marshy districts of southern Europe, and that a specimen taken in 

 Staffordshire in 1881, a second in Hampshire two years later, and a 

 third seen in Kent in 1884, are believed by some authorities to 

 indicate truly wild stragglers to this country. In a work ^ where the 

 opinion is expressed as to the authentic nature of these occurrences, it 

 is also stated that fossil flamingoes are common in the south of 

 England, although there is not the slightest foundation for such an 

 assertion. 



„„ ^ AlthouLrh the mallard, or wild duck is the typical 



Whooper Swan ^ . r , \ 1 -i • ^ 



,„ . representative of the large and easily recognised 



(Cygnus musieus). ^ r ^ u- j u ^ - /a ■ -^u 



group of water-birds generally designated in ornitho- 

 logical works the Anseres, but sometimes termed Anseriformes, and 

 ought therefore properly to come first, such an arrangement would 

 interfere with the correct grouping of the various genera and species 

 according to their natural affinities. This being so, it is better to 

 commence the group with the swans, which form its most specialised 

 section. It may, however, be first mentioned, in order to anticipate 

 criticism with regard to taking as the typical representative of a group 

 which derives its title from the geese {Anser) a species belonging to 

 the duck tribe {Anas), that all the members of the group are included 

 in the family Anatidje, and that of this family, as well as of the sub- 

 family Anatinai, the mallard is unquestionably the typical representative. 

 In the essential characters of the skull, namely, the bridged palate 

 and the oval nostrils, the Anseres resemble the storks, while they agree 

 with the ibises and spoonbills in the production in the form of a hook 

 of the hind extremity of each half of the lower jaw far beyond its 

 point of articulation with the skull. They differ, however, broadly 

 from all the Ciconiae in that the base of the skull bears special flat 

 surfaces for the articulation of the bones of the hind part of the 

 palate, and also in the presence of transverse plates on the under 

 surface of the upper half of the beak, in both of which respects they 

 approximate to the flamingoes. Another distinctive feature is the 

 presence of a smooth rounded surface, or " nail " on the tip of the beak ; 

 the beak itself being generally more or less depressed and expanded. 

 In all cases the nostrils are pervious, the wing carries eleven primary 

 quills, the oil-gland is tufted, the body-feathers have, at most, only 



' Sharpe, Handbook to the Birds of Great Britain, vol. ii. p. 223. 



