THE DUCK FAMILY. 



No group of birds is more important to man than 

 that known as the duck family. They are called the 

 AnatidcB, from the Latin word Anas, a duck ; and be- 

 long to the Order Anseres, or Lamellirostral Swim- 

 mers, — birds whose bills are provided with lamellae, by 

 which are meant the little transverse ridges found on 

 the margins of the bills of most ducks. Sometimes the 

 lamellae appear like a row of white blunt teeth ; in the 

 shoveller, they constitute a fine comb-like structure, 

 which acts as a strainer, while in the case of the mer- 

 gansers they have the appearance of being real teeth, 

 which, however, they are not, since teeth are always 

 implanted in sockets in the bone of the jaw ; and this is 

 true of no known birds, except some Cretaceous forms 

 of Western America and the Jurassic Archcsopteryx. 



The bill is variously shaped in the members of the 

 duck family. Usually it is broad and depressed, as in 

 the domestic duck; or it may be high at the base and 

 approach the conical, as in some geese ; broadly spread, 

 or spoon-shaped, as in the shoveller duck, or almost 

 cylindrical and hooked at the tip, as in the mergansers. 

 Whatever its shape, the bill is almost wholly covered 



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