401 



DUCKS. 



DUCKS. 



412 



afforded by the preparations numbered 1468 and 1469. In the former 

 are seen the bones of the tongue and upper larynx of a swan (Cyynus 

 olor, Brisson). The glosso-hyal part is broader and longer than it is 

 in the land-birds, corresponding to the greater development of the 

 tongue in the lamellirostral swimming birds, but is devoid of the 

 cartilaginous processes to its posterior angles in the gallinaceous tribe. 

 In the larynx may be distinguished the thyroid, cricoid, and arytenoid 

 cartilages, which in most birds are more or less bony : the thyroid 

 cartilage is the largest, and covers the whole anterior part of the 

 larynx like a shield : the posterior broad part of the cricoid (wkich is 

 not in this class developed in the form of a ring) supports as usual the 

 arytenoid cartilages which form the rima glottidis ; they have muscles 

 for opening and closing that fissure, and the larynx is defended by 

 the latter action alone from the entrance of food or fluid. No. 1469 

 exhibits the lower jaw, with the tongue and larynx of the same bird, 

 and it will be seen that the tongue is so far developed as to corre- 

 spond with the form of the lower jaw. It is a thick and fleshy organ, 

 beset with four longitudinal rows of horny tooth-like processes, two 

 at the sides, and two on the dorsum, separated by a mesial furrow : 

 the base of the tongue is also armed with retroverted spines arranged 

 in a chevron figure ; similar spines again occur behind the larynx. 

 The apo-hyal and cerato-hyal bones are dissected on one side, but 

 covered by the muscles on the other. 



Mr. Swainson, in the paper above quoted, divides the genus Anas 

 (which he thus characterises" bill longer than the head, depressed 

 nearly its whole length ; the base not enlarged, the tip very obtuse ; 

 the lamina; of the upper mandible generally projecting ; hinder toe 

 uot dilated, short,- claws short, thick") into the following sub- 

 genera : 



1. Typical Group. Sub-Genera. 



Bill spatulate, simple; laminae considerably 

 projecting 



2. Sub-Typical Group. 



Bill spatulate, furnished with a lobed mem- 1 

 brane; lamina; considerably projecting . .] 



8. Aberrant Group. 



Bill of equal breadth ; projecting lamina) 1 rn.-.j;..j... a-, 

 short, slender, acute, crowded . . . J 6 ' '"* Sw ' 



Bill more cylindrical, lengthened ; tail long . Dajila, Leach. 



Bill depressed, of equal breadth ; lamina; "I 

 distant, obtuse, and generally concealed ; tail } Boichat, Antiq. 

 short J 



The type of the genus A not is considered by Mr. Swainson to be 

 the Shoveler Duck ; and he thus speaks of the arrangement above set 

 forth : " In regard to the tabular disposition of the five sub-genera, 

 or types of form, it will be expected that I should say a few words, 

 since it is at variance with the mode of exhibiting circular affinities 

 adopted by that distinguished writer who first detected this arrange- 

 ment. On this point I must refer the reader to the ornithological 

 volume of the ' Northern Zoology,' now about to appear, where he 

 will find our peculiar views explained and illustrated. I have, indeed, 

 chosen to enumerate, in both instances, the subordinate divisions of 

 the aberrant group, but they are always viewed by me as forming a 

 distinct circle of their own, the primary divisions of every natural 

 group being considered as three and not five. In the present instance, 

 the three sub-genera of Chauliodits, Dajila., and Boschat, possess one 

 common character, in not having the bill conspicuously dilated at its 

 extremity ; while their circular succession can hardly be questioned, 

 when we find the greatest modern reformers * leave the Gadwall and 

 the Mallard in the same group ; these writers having overlooked the 

 modifications of the lamina;, and passed over the difference in the 

 habits of these birds, as not bearing upon the question. The theory 

 that the mallard is the typical representation of this family has now, 

 I trust, been thoroughly investigated, and demonstrated to be erro- 

 neous ; t nor can I consider the two circular arrangements J that 

 have been made of the whole family, each apparently perfect, but 

 essentially different, in any other light. They appear to me to be the 

 result of abstract theory, and of a theory misapplied. On the other 

 hand, I deem it but justice to the great merits of another ornitho- 

 logist of our own country to acknowledge the assistance I have derived 

 liis highly valuable paper on the trachaja (trachea;) of birds, 

 and, at the same time, to declare that if there is any truth in his own 

 inferences, drawn from internal structure, or in mine, resulting from 

 attention to external form and habits, he has himself marked out the 

 true circle of the Anatidcr., so far as the British species are concerned, 

 totally unconscious of having done so. There is, and there cannot be, 

 but one plan of creation. In our efforts to develop this plan we 

 must, as Mr. Yarrell justly observes, 'combine ascertained habits, 

 external characters, and anatomical structure ;' and in proportion as 

 we can do this so may we assume that our arrangement is ' natural' " 



Sir John Richardson ('Fauna Boreali-Americana ') observes that 

 the Anatidce are "of great importance in the Fur Countries, as they 



Dr. Leach, Dr. Firming, Stevens (Stephens ?), Vigors, 

 t For the dcmoniitration, see the paper quoted. 

 { Linn. -Train.' xir. p. 499; ' Zool. Jour.' iii. (ii.) p. 404. 

 KAT. HIST. DIV. VOL. II. 



furnish at certain seasons in the year, in many extensive districts, 

 almost the only article of food that can be procured. The arrival of 

 the water-fowl marks the commencement of spring, and diffuses as 

 much joy among the wandering hunters of the arctic regions as the 

 harvest or vintage excites in more genial climes. The period of their 

 migration southward again, in large flocks at the close of summer, is 

 another season of plenty, bountifully granted to the natives, and 

 fitting them for encountering the rigour and privations of a northern 

 winter. The Anatid<e have therefore very naturally been observed 

 more attentively than any other family of birds, both by the Indians 

 and white residents of the Fur Countries ; and as they form the bulk 

 of the specimens that have been transmitted to England, they are 

 also better known to ornithologists." 



We shall now proceed to speak of the genera and species of this 

 family under the sub-families Ph&nicoptince, the Flamingoes ; 

 Anserince, the Geese; Anatina, the True Ducks; Fidigulince, the 

 Sea-Ducks ; and Merganiru?, the Mergansers. The Swans are 

 described in the article CYGNINJE. 



The PhoenicoptiiUE include a single genus, Pluetiicopterus, Flamingo 

 of the English, Flammant of the French, Phomicopterus of the ancients 

 and moderns. The position of these birds has been a matter of con- 

 siderable doubt. The form approaches in some points to Itecurvi- 

 rostra [AVOSET] and Platalea (the Spoonbills), and in others comes 

 nearest to the Anterinas (Geese). C. L. Bonaparte places it in a 

 family, ffygrobatce, with Jlecurvirostra and Platalea, between his 

 family Pinnatipede (Phalaropes, &c.)on the one side and the Auserirue 

 ou the other. Mr. Vigors, in his paper ' On the Natural Affinities 

 that connect the Orders and Families of Birds,' thus marks its position 

 among the Grallatoret : " Intermediate between Ardea and Ciconia 

 appear those forms which display so remarkable a dilatation of the 

 bill, the Cancroma '[BoAT-BiLL] P/uenicoptems, and Platalea of 

 Linnaeus. The two last of these groups are equally distinguished by 

 a greater development of the membrane that connects the toes than 

 is observable in the other Waders which join them on each side ; and 

 in one of them, the Phtenicopterut, this character is carried so far to 

 the extreme as to have occasioned some systematists to place the 

 birds of this genus among the Natatore* (Swimmers). But the whole 

 of the family have a membrane, more or less exteusive, at the base of 

 the toes ; and if we compare the feet of the common Ciconia, alba 

 (Stork), of the Platalea, and the Plucnicoptcrus, together, we shall see 

 a gradual increase of this membrane in extent, until it reaches the 

 extreme in the latter genus." Mr. Swainson places the Flamingo 

 among the Swimmers. In his ' Natural History and Classification of 

 Birds ' (1836), he says, " The Flamingo, which has the longest legs 

 in the Natatorial order, is so good a walker that it only swima 

 occasionally." 



The genus Phcmicopterut has the bill strong, higher than'it is large, 

 dentilated, conical towards the point, naked at the base; upper 

 mandible suddenly bent, curved at its point on the lower mandible, 

 which is larger than the upper. Nostrils longitudinal in the middle 

 of the bill, pierced through and through near the dome of the upper 

 arete, covered beneath by a membrane. Feet very long ; three toes 

 in front, hind toe very short, articulated high up on the tarsus ; 

 anterior toes united to the nails by a lunated membrane (membrane 

 decoupee). Nails short, flat. Wings moderate; first and second 

 quills longest. 



Temminck, whose generic characters we have given, says that the 

 Flamingoes live on the sea-beach or in marshes formed by salt lakes, 

 where their food consists of testaceous mollusks, m'arine insects 

 (crustaceans ?), and the spawn of fish, which they collect by plunging 

 their long neck into the water and turning the head upside down, so 

 as to employ with greater advantage the bend of their bill. They 

 join in large troops and live in societies. Their nest is made in the 

 marshes, and consists of earth piled up, and upon this nest the birds 

 sit astride, because their length of limb hinders them from incubatiug 

 otherwise. Whether they are reposing or fishing, sentinels are 

 appointed which keep a sort of guard. If anything alarms the 

 vddette he utters a trumpeting kind of cry, and the whole flock follow 

 him into the air. They rarely take their repose in any other than 

 open places ; and it is asserted that their sense of smelling is so acute 

 that they scent from afar the hunter and fire-arms. Their moult 

 appears to be simple and ordinary, but the young birds differ much 

 from their parents. The red or rosy plumage which covers the adult 

 shows itself gradually, after many moults and a period of about four 

 years. The females are less than the males, and the colours of the 

 former want the purity which distinguish the latter. The young, at 

 their departure from the nest, are white. The body of the Flamingo 

 has hardly a greater covering of down than that of the other Waders, 

 the Avosets aloue excepted ; and accordingly they do not swim 

 habitually, like the latter birds, when they wi*h to go from one bank 

 to another in deep water. The palmated feet of the Flamingoes 

 appear to be given them to enable them to sustain themselves on the 

 slimy bottoms of rivers and creeks into which they wade as far as their 

 long legs will allow them, and to walk thereon. As they fly in flocks 

 they make an angle like the Geese. In walking they often apply their 

 upper mandible to the ground, and lean on it us a point of Mipport. 



M. Temmiuck positively asserts that the Flnmingo of Europe ami 



2 D 



