136 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



at that moment, if one is suflicicntly near, tlie inlialatiun of air into tlie chest may be 

 faintly heard. The note is of great strength and vohinie, and is still distinguishable a 

 couple of miles away, if the day should be calm. The food, as far as I have been able 

 to ascertain, is gathered from the floating duck-weed and other vegetable matter of the 

 swamjis. One has to be on one's guard against the formidable wing-spurs on laying 

 hold of a wounded chaha. On cue such occasion, a stroke aimed at my face as I 

 stooped to ]>ick the bird up w.is very nearly successful ; the sjnir caught in my coat- 

 collar, and I was almost pulled out of the saddle by the bird's weight. I have seen a 

 young bird, as yet unable to fly, beat off and follow up a dog, striking quickly and 

 heavily, the half-folded wings being used alternately. Well might ilr. Durnford 

 express surjn-ise at the breeding-habits of this species. At the end of June (midwinter) 

 he took nests with eggs. But Se])tenil)er and October constitute the real breeding 

 season, when the bulk of the birds lay. The nest is a shallow, light construction, 

 built of dry ruslies, with a hollow on the top for the eggs. The foundation is in the 

 water. Four is the largest number of yoinig I have seen in one brood; but the clutch 

 of eggs reaches as many as six. These are of a white color, occasionally tinged with 

 light buff, oval-shaped and smooth-shelled. The young, when hatched, is covered 

 with an abundance of beautiful, soft down, of a yellow-brown color. In a very few 

 days they leave the nest and follow the j)arent birds, generally remaining in the swamps 

 or close to them." 



It is needless here to enlarge upon the characters peculiar to the AXATOIDE.^, 

 the ' duck tribe,' in its widest sense, since few groujis arc better known to the general 

 reader. It is one of the best circumscribed super-families of recent birds, and its dis- 

 tinguishing characters so well marked e.\ternally, that nobody fails to recognize any 

 member at an instant, be it a swan, a goose, a duck, or a merganser, and most of the 

 systematic names invented for the group, as Lamellirostres, Lamelloso-dentali, Serrati, 

 Dermorhynchi, etc. — have been derived from the .soft-skinned bill with the curious 

 lamellar teeth. Most of the species take their food under water, and, when the head 

 is raised, tlie water runs out between the lamella^ which act like a sieve in retaining 

 the food, which led to the invention of the English word 'sifters,' as an equivalent 

 of Lamellirostres. In some forms the lamella} are shortened and thickened so as to 

 enable them to act as teeth in iii]iping off grass, as, for instance, in the geese, while in 

 the mergansers they are moditied into retror.se hooks, which serve to prevent the slimy 

 fish from slipjiing away. Some of the more important anatomical characters have 

 been mentioned under the foregoing sujier-family, .-md others will be mentioned when 

 we describe the peculiarities of the flamingos. 



Ducks, and their allies, are found all over the globe. Man has found them where- 

 ever he went, and he has seen them flying northwards at the northernmost point he 

 has readied. 



The first form to meet us of the 'duck tribe,' in its widest sense, is one of those 

 remarkable extinct birds which formerly inhabited the islands of New Zealand, and 

 which lost their power of flight through disuse of that faculty, and consequent degen- 

 eration of the jiarts. Though originally described in connection with the Moa re- 

 mains, and found together with them, the Cncmiornis, as it was called by Owen, has 

 nothing to do with TXnornis, or the Struthious birds at all ; its ilia and ischia are united 

 behind, the sternum has trace of a keel, and the ])alate is desmognathous. It differs, 

 however, sufficiently from the tyjiical Anseres to require the separate position of a 

 very marked family which we will call Cnemiokxituid^. 



