564 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Genus FULIGULA. 



Bechstein, probably prompted by the elder Naumann, and following in 

 the wake of Willughby and Ray, whose attention was first called to the 

 subject by Mr. Ralph Johnson, appears to have been the first ornithologist 

 to divide the Ducks into two genera, to which he assigned characters in 

 1803. In the second part of his ' Ornithologisches Tascheubuch von und 

 fur Deutschlaud/ on page 405, he points out the difference between the 

 two groups, and promises to recognize them as genera in a second edition 

 if the public approves of his doing so. I have not been able to find any 

 subsequent edition of his works where names are given to these two 

 groups; but they have been recognized by many ornithologists as sub- 

 families under the names of Anatinse and Fuligulinae, terms which were 

 probably first applied to them by Swainson in 1831. It seems to me that 

 the second of these groups forms a convenient genus ; but driven by the 

 modern craze for genus-making, the twenty-six species which it contains 

 have been distributed amongst no fewer than sixteen genera ! 



1. Branta. 



3. Aythya. j 



3 J ' I oie, 1822. 



2. Melanetta, I 



2. Oidemia, ^ 



3. Clangula, i Fleming, 1822. 

 2. Nyroca, ' 



1. Harelda, ) 



i Stephens. 1824. 



2. Fuligula, I 



1. Micropterus. ) 



} Lesson, 1828. 

 1. Histnomcus, I 



1. Pelionetta, Kaup, 1829. 



3. Fulix, Sundevall, 1835. 



1. Camptolaimus, Gray, 1841. 

 1. Hymenolaimus, Gray, 1843. 

 1. Metopiana, Bonaparte, 1856. 

 1. Aristonetta, Baird, 1858. 



26 species. 



I think most readers will agree with me that the wisest course is to 

 consign the whole list to the waste-paper basket, and adopt the name 

 Fuligula as the best generic term. The Tufted Duck, Fuligula cristata 

 (being the Anas fuligula of Linnaeus) , must be accepted as the type. 



