72 HISTORY OF 



OF THE DUCK TRIBE. 



Lamellirostres. CUVIER. 



IT is with considerable diffidence that we place before the 

 public a sketch of a new arrangement of the above tribe ; but 

 not having hitherto seen one in which the anatomical characters, 

 with regard to the skeleton at least, was at all considered, we 

 venture to propose the following : 



The genus Mergus we place at the head of the family Lamelli- 

 rostres, of the order Palmipides of Cuvier, on account of its near 

 alliance with the Divers and Cormorants of the last division, 

 (Des Totipalmes, Cuvier; Totipalmata, Nobis.) The narrow 

 elongated pelvis, and long and narrow bill, point it out as 

 connected with them ; at the same time that the serrated edges 

 of the bill, enlarged inferior larynx of the male birds, and 

 lobated hind toe, connect it with the Ducks; among which 

 the genus Fuligula* of Ray, and especially F. Ferina, Stephens, 

 is pointed out on account of its largely crested head, and the 

 tube of the trachea having two bulbs between the superior and 

 inferior larynx : in fact, this Duck presents such differences, both 

 external and internal, from the rest of the genus Fuligula, that 

 we have separated it from that genus, and placed it in a new 

 one, (Mergoides, Nobis.) We shall also separate F. Stelleri, 

 Pallas, placing it as a sub genus under Fuligula, for which we 



* We have more than once, in dissecting birds of this genus, taken 

 the remains of small fish from the gizzard, and once a nearly perfect 

 one from the oesophagus of F. Ferina, Linnaeus. Should this mode of 

 feeding be constant, it connects this genus still more nearly with the 

 Mergansers. 



