AN HIM A —ANSERES 



19 



organs. Of course every one of such one-sided attempts will 

 occasionally shew a rather perplexing face, but each of them Mdll 

 bring to light some unexpected points of resemblance between 

 certain groups ; and, while restricting ourselves to one organic 

 system, we are more likely to understand which points are given 

 to modifications through mode of life, food, habit, and surroundings, 

 and which remain least affected, and therefore are indicative of 

 relationship. Let us then combine the several one-sided arrange- 

 ments. They will each of them contribute something good or 

 certain, and thus help to settle the great question. Reasoning from 

 a broad basis of facts will do the rest. 



ANHIMA or ANHINGA, see Snake-bird. 



ANI, according to Marcgrave {Rist. Rer. Nat. Brasilia, p. 193), 

 the Brazilian name of what is the Crotoj^haga major of modern 

 ornithologists, who have ignorantly misapplied Linnaeus's designa- 

 tion, C. ani, to its smaller congener, an inhabitant of the Antilles 

 and part of the Spanish Main. This latter is known to most 

 of the English-speaking people of the West Indies as the Black 

 Witch or Savanna Blackbird. The genus Crotophaga is one of 

 the most remarkable forms of the CucuUdse (CucKOW) of the New 

 World. 



ANISODACTYLI, Vieillot's name, in 1816 {Analyse, p. 29), 

 for the second tribe of his second Order, comprehending all the 

 Passeres of Linnajus and such of the latter 's PlC^ as had not two 

 toes before and two behind. By some later authors the name has 

 been restricted to the genera which are not Zygodactyli and are 

 yet placed among the SCANSORES. 



ANKLE-JOINT. The true ankle-joint is a Mammalian feature, 

 being the articulation of the tibia with the astragalus, and therefore 

 a tibio-tarsal joint. In Birds the so-called ankle-joint is an inter- 

 tarsal joint, because the proximal tarsal bones, of which the astra- 

 galus is one, are fused with the end of the tibia, and the distal 

 tarsal are fused Avith the metatarsal bones (see Skeleton). 



ANOMALOGONATyE, the second of the two subclasses, the 

 other being called Homalogonat^, into which Garrod at one 

 time divided Birds, according as they possessed an Ambiens 

 muscle or not {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1874, pp. 116-118). In the 

 Homalogonatous or " typically -kneed " birds "the ambie^is runs 

 in the tendon of the knee," though there are some of them in which 

 it is absent; but "there cannot be any Anomalogonatous birds in 

 which it is present." For the grouj)s which are contained in these 

 categories, see Introduction. 



ANSERES, the third Order of the Class Aves according to the 

 system of Linnaeus, comprising all the Web-footed Birds known to 



