278 ANATIDE, GEESE, DUCKS, ETC.—GEN. 246. 
high enough to permit their long legs to dangle, as represented in some popular 
accounts and pictorial efforts. The young are said, on good authority, to take to 
the water as soon as hatched. 
246. Genus PHG:NICOPTERUS Linneus. 
American Flamingo. Adult plumage scarlet; most of the quill feathers 
black; legs lake-red; bill orange-yellow, black-tipped. Length about 4 
feet; wing 16 inches; tail 6; bill 5; tarsus 12; middle toe and claw 33. 
Florida and Gulf coast; N. casually to S. Carolina (Audubon). Whuxs., 
vill, 45, pl. 66; Nurt., ii, 70; Aup., vi, 169, pl. 375; Bp., 687. RuBER. 
Family ANATIDA. Geese, Ducks, etc. 
Bill lamellate, stout, more or less elevated and compressed at base, widened or 
flattened at tip, invested with soft, tough, leathery membrane, except at the end, 
which is furnished with a hard, horny ‘ nail,” generally somewhat overhanging, 
sometimes small and distinct, sometimes large and fused; that is, changing insen- 
sibly into the general covering. (This soft covering is regarded by some as a 
prolonged cere; but this is purely theoretical.) Body full, heavy, flattened beneath ; 
neck of variable length; head large; eyes small. No anti, the frontal feathers 
encroaching on the culmen with a convex or pointed out- 
line, and forming other projections on the sides of the bill, 
and in the interramal space, which latter is broad and long, 
the mandibular crura being united only at the end by a broad 
short bridge; no culminal ridge nor keel of gonys. Nostrils 
subbasal, median or subterminal, usually broadly oval. 
Fic. 181. Wild Duck. Wings of moderate length (rarely very short), stiff, strong, 
pointed, conferring rapid, vigorous, whistling flight; a wild duck at full speed is 
said to make ninety miles an hour. Tail of variable shape, but usually short and 
rounded, never forked, sometimes cuneate, of 12-24 feathers, usually 14-16, the 
under coverts very long and full, forming a conspicuous crissal tuft. Feet short; 
knees buried in the general integument; tibizee feathered nearly or quite to the 
suffrago; tarsi reticulate or scutellate, or both; toes palmate, the hinder always 
present and free, simple or lobate. Wing occasionally spurred. 
Like the gallinaceous, the anserine type is a familiar one, comprising all kinds 
of ‘‘ water-fowl,” among which are the originals of all our domestic breeds of swans, 
* geese and ducks, that vie with poultry in point of economic consequence, ornament 
our parks, or furnish exquisite material for wearing apparel. But additional infor- 
mation respecting the structure of this, the largest and most important family of 
swimming birds, may be desirable. It is definitely characterized by many impor- 
tant points besides those external features just stated. In palatal structure, the 
Anatide are desmognathous ; ‘‘the lachrymal region of the skull is remarkably long 
[the lachrymal bone itself is large]. The basisphenoidal nostrum has oval sessile 
basipterygoid facets. The flat and lamellar maxillo-palatines unite and form a 
bridge across the palate. The angle of the mandible is produced and greatly 
recurved” (Hualey). The interorbital septum is more or less completely ossified, 
and the orbits are better defined than in many birds, by well developed processes. 
The premaxillary is large, and its three prongs are so extensively fused that only a 
‘and other material, which the birds bestride in an ungainly attitude ; but it is not 
ana eee eh 
