397 



DUCKS. 



DUCKS. 



398 



Pennant's 24th genus, Duck, is placed between the genus Merganser 

 (Goosander) and the genus Corvorant; and it comprehends the 

 Swan?, the Geese, and all the Ducks, like the Liuu&an genus Anas. 



Latham, who divides the birds into terrestrial and aquatic, makes 

 his 9th order, Palmipedes, consist of two great sections 4-the first 

 consisting of those with long feet Avoset and Flamingo for example 

 and the second of those with short feet, comprehending all the 

 short-limbed aquatic birds with webbed feet. 



Lace'pede's second sub-class of birds consists of those the lower 

 part of whose legs is denuded of feathers, or have many toes united 

 by a membrane. The first division of this sub-class consists of 

 those which have three anterior toes and one posterior toe, or none. 

 The first sub-division consists of the Wsiter-Birds (Oiseaux d'Eau) ; 

 and the 23rd order of Lac5pede comprehends those genera which 

 have a dentilated bill, namely, Canard, Ana ; Harle, Meryiui ; Priom, 

 friim. The genus Anas consists of all the birds which combine with 

 the characters above stated a wide bill, rounded at its extremity, 

 and furnished around the mandibles with email vertical laminae. 



Cuvier's 6th and last order is the Palmipedes ; and the last family 

 of that order, Lamellirostres, contains tho great genus Des Canards 

 (Anai, Linn.). Cuvier remarks that they are commonly divided into 

 three sub-genera, the limits of each of which are not very precise, 

 namely, the Swans (Ci/gniu, Meyer), the Geese (Anter, Brissou), and 

 the Ducks, in the general acceptation of the term (Anas, Meyer). 

 The other great genus of Cuvier's Lainellivostres is Meryus, Linn. 



Cuvier separates the genus Anas into two divisions. The first 

 consists of those whose hind toe is bordered by a membrane, whose 

 head is larger and neck shorter hi comparison, and which have also 

 the feet placed more backwards, the wings smaller, the tail stifier, 

 the tarsi more compressed, the toes longer, and the webs more entire. 

 They walk badly, live more exclusively upon fishes and insects, and 

 dive more frequently. (Platypus, Brehni; Ilydrobates, Temminck; 

 Fuliyttla, Carlo Bonaparte). This first division contains the following 

 sub-divisions: Lea Macreuseg (Oidemia, Fleming, Anai nigra, A. 

 futca, Linn., &c.) ; Les Carrots (Clanynla, Leach ; A ylacialit, A. 

 histrionica, Linn., Ac.) ; Les Eiders (Eider-Ducks, Somateria, Leach, 

 A. molliuiuia, Linn.) ; Les Millouins (Pulvjula, Leach). 



The second division is formed by those Ducks which are without 

 the membranous border on the hind toe, and have the head smaller, 

 the feet less, the neck longer, the bill more equal, and the body less 

 clumsy (opals). These walk better, and seek aquatic plants and their 

 seeds as much as fish and other animals. It would seem, adds 

 Cuvier, that the swellings of their trachea; are of a homogeneous bony 

 and cartilaginous substance. It is to this division that Carlo 

 Lucien Bonaparte, prince of Canino, confines the appellation Anas. 

 The following are the sub-divisions : Les Souchets, JIAyncltaspis, Leach ; 

 Les Tadornes, A . tadm-na, Linn., &c. ; those which have naked parts 

 about the head, and often a boss or convexity on the base of the bill, 

 as the Muscovy Duck ; those with a pointed tail, A. acuta, Linn., for 

 instance ; those whose male has curled feathers in the tail, as the 

 Wild Duck, Soichas, A . Boichas, Linn. ; those which have a tuft on 

 the head, and the bill rather narrower anteriorly, as the Summer- 

 Duck, Anas tponta, Linn., and the Mandarin-Duck, A. yalericulata, 

 Linn., Dendronessa, Swainson ; those which have the bills of ducks, 

 but legs even longer than those of the geese, and which perch and 

 nestle in trees, A . arborea, Linn., &c. One of these Cuvier observes 

 has the feet only semipalmated, A. temipalmata, Latham. Finally, 

 Cuvier goes on to state that we possess, especially in winter, among 

 those which have nothing remarkable about them, A. itrepcra, Linn., 

 A. Penelope, Linn.; and many small species which are distinguished 

 by the name of Sarcelles, Teals, A. querquedula, Linn., the Common 

 Teal, for example. 



.Mr. Vigors, in his paper 'On the Natural Affinities that connect 

 the Orders and Families of Birds,' read before the Liimiean Society, 

 December 3, 1823 ('Trans. Linn. Soc.' vol. xiv. p. 395), makes his 

 5th order ffatatores consist of the families stated in the article 

 COLVMBID.E. The family of Anatida (Leach), to which he leads his 

 readers from the preceding order (Grattaturet) by means of the 

 connection between the Rallida; and Cereopiis, consists, he observes, 

 of the groups which compose the Linnamn genera Anas and Mergut, 

 mid with respect to the affinities that prevail throughout the families 

 ok the order, he remarks, that the more extensive subdivisions of the 

 Linnuean Anai which have been acknowledged by all systematic 

 writers, either under the name of sections or genera, display in con- 

 junction with Meryus a regular series of affinities conformable to the 

 principles advanced by him as regulating the order. The first group, 

 he observe*, upon which we enter in this first aberrant family of the 

 order, has been formed into a sectional subdivision by M. Temminck, 

 ii!id.T the denomination of Les Dies; and with equal signification 

 and more effect has been made into a genus, under the title of Anser, 

 by M. Illiger, who therein followed the older naturalists that pre- 

 I I, inn rr us. These birds retain much of the manners of the 

 Widen, They are endowed with considerable facility in walking, 

 are found to swim but seldom, and do not dive at all. In these 

 charactcni, as well as in other particulars, they correspond with the 

 family of Lnrii/re, which meets them at tho other extremity of the 

 circle of Natatora. 



To this division succeeds Ccrcoptit, Latham [CKREorara], strongly 



allied to the preceding Anseres by its general structure, but still more 

 typical in the family in consequence of the length and nakedness of 

 the tarsi above the knee : characters which indicate a greater power 

 of walking, and a greater deficiency in swimming. It joins the third 

 division, or the genuine Anates, by means of a group of which Anas 

 arborea, Linn., is the representative. This third and most typical 

 group of the family, which accords with M. Temminck's first section 

 of 'Canards propremeut dits,' still approaches more closely to the 

 land birds than the birds which follow : the species swim with ease, 

 and even dive, but the latter faculty they seldom exercise unless 

 when pursued. Their food is also less exclusively marine than that 

 of the succeeding groups, being composed of vegetables, grains, and 

 insects, in addition to fish. This division, consisting of many promi- 

 nent forms, of which Anas arborea, before mentioned, A. tadorna, 

 Boschas, clypeala, Penelope, and querquedula may be considered types, 

 is distinguished from the remainder of the ' Canards propremeuts 

 dits' of M. Temminck by the hind toe being entire, or free from the 

 lobated membrane which is attached to the bind toe of these last. 

 Mr. Vigors proceeds to state that this character of the lobated 

 membrane, which is of considerable importance as pointing out the 

 approach of the birds in which it is found to the more typical oceanic 

 families, prevails in all the remaining groups of the present family. 

 It is strongly conspicuous in Mergus, Linn., the next division that 

 appears to follow : and we consequently find that the species of that 

 genus carry the powers of swimming and diving to the greatest 

 extent, making use of their wings also in their progress through the 

 water ; and at the same time exhibiting a constrained and embarrassed 

 mode of walking, in consequence of the backward position of the 

 legs. It thus forms the passage to the succeeding family of Colym- 

 bidce. In the shape of its bill, which is slender and partially com- 

 pressed, it exhibits a distinct form in its own family : but still, by 

 means of the bill of an intervening species, M. albellus, Linn., which 

 is intermediate in its breadth and depression, it preserves its con- 

 nection with the Anates. " We hence," continues Mr. Vigors, " pass 

 to the 5th and last group of the family which, with the bill of the 

 Anates, retains most of the characters conspicuous in Meryus. The 

 forms most prominent in it, represented by the different Linmcan 

 species Anas ferina, clangula, kistrionica, and molliirimtt, possess a 

 strongly lobated hind toe; they frequent the ocean for the most 

 part, where they dive with the greatest facility and for a length of 

 time ; and they live chiefly on marine animals. Their legs are also 

 thrown behind the equilibrium of their body ; and thus also they 

 evince their contiguity to the typical Natatores. By means of the 

 group which contains A. mollissima, our well-known Eider-Duck and 

 its congeners, where the bill, with an elevated protuberance at the 

 base, approaches that of the Anas olor, Linn., we find ourselves brought 

 round to the Cyynua of the present day, which forms part of the 

 first division. That genus in like manner deviates partially from 

 the conterminous genus Anser, in its legs being thrown more back- 

 ward, and its consequen'.ly greater awkwardness in walking. Here 

 then the affinities are evident which thus establish the perfect return 

 of the series of the Anatid(e into itself. Before we leave the family 

 I must indulge myself in observing a most conspicuous peculiarity 

 which marks the series of affinities among these groups. The long 

 and slender neck observable in the Grallatores is preserved in such 

 groups of the Anatidce as are most conterminous to that order, such 

 as Cygnus, Anser, Sernicla, and Cereopsis, until it is superseded by the 

 short necks of the more Oceanic Anatidce, which exhibit all the 

 expansion and capaciousness of throat observable in the typical 

 Natatores," 



In the ' Zoological Journal ' (v,ol. ii.), Mr. Vigors gives a disposition 

 of the Anatida; which exhibits a slight deviation from that drawn 

 out in his paper referred to above. The following is the arrange- 

 ment. 



OBDO V. Natatoree, 111. (Anieres, Linn,) 

 1. Family Anaiidce, Leach, (Gen. Anat Meryus, Linn.) 



Sub-Family Awerina. 



Anser t Briss. ; Bernicla, Steph. ; Cheniscus, Brookes's M.M.S.; 

 Ghenoplex, Steph. ; Plectropterus, Leach* 



Cereopsis, Lath. 



Sub-Family C'ereopsina. 



Sub'Family Anatina. 



Tadorna, Leach j Oaii'ina, B"lem. j Anas, Auct. ; Dajita, Leach; 

 Mareca, Steph. ; Querquedula, Ray ; Ilhynchatyis, Leach* 



* * * 



Sub-Family 1 



Clangula, Flem. ; Ilarelda, Ray ; Meryus, Linn. (Merganser, Bliss.) ; 

 Somateria, Leach ; Oidemia, Flem. ; Biziura, Leach. 



Sub-Family Cygnina. 

 Cyynus, Meyer. 



The other four families are 2. Colymbidai, Leach ; 3. Alcada ; 4. 

 Pelecanidat, Leach ; 5. Laridai, Leach. 



