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ORDEii ANSERES. 



THE LAMELLIROISTRAL SWIMMERS. 



Char. Lamellirostral Swimming Birds, with straight bills, short legs (always 

 shorter than the wing), the tibiie usually completely feathered, and scarcely free 

 from the body ; hallux well developed, though usually small, never absent. Eepro- 

 duction pruicocial, and young ptilopa^dic ; eggs numerous and unmarked, with a 

 liard, usually very smooth, shell. 



Like the Phwnkojiter!, the Order Anseres is composed of a single family, wliich, 

 however, includes very numerous genera and species. The Order is represented in 

 every portion of the globe, but most numerously in the northern hemisphere. 



Family ANATID^. — The Swans, Geese, and Ducks. 



Char. The same as those of the Order. 



The Family Anutidir, which includes all the known Anseres proper, or Lamelli- 

 rostral Swimmers, constitutes so well-marked and natural a group of birds as to need 

 no further definition than that given above. The Anat'uhe are allied most nearly to 

 the Phfinicoj}teri(/tr, or Klamingoes, which, however, are trenchantly separated by 

 many striking peculiarities of structure. The sj)ecies being very numerous, naturally 

 fall into several more or less \vell-detined groups, which have been accorded the rank 

 of sub-families. These, however, grade so insensibly into one another, that it is 

 extremely doubtful whether this rank can be maintained for them.* Birds of this 

 t'iunily are found in every known part of the world ; but they abound most in the 

 northern hemisphere, particularly in boreal regions. Tlie North American repre- 

 sentatives may, for convenience of classiHcation, be divided into three toleral)ly 

 well-defined groups, as follows : — 



Cygninae. Neck extremely long (as long as or longer than the body) ; size very lai-ge ; bill 

 longer than the head, tiie edges parallel, the nail small ; tarsi shorter than middle toe ; 

 lores naked ; tail-feathers 2()-24 ; color chiefly or entirely white (e.\cept in Chenopis 

 atrata, the Bhu^k Swan of Australia). 



' " The whole fnmily Anatidw forms, as to structural fentures, a very homogeneous group, and inter- 

 mediate links are everywliere to l)o found. TIius it is very difficult to define the sub-fumilies anatomically, 

 and to give the structural diU'ercnccs by which tlicy are to b<! separated, so that I find it not improbable 

 that an exact investigation, bnscMl on a more abundant material than I can at present procure, will reduce 

 the sub-families to groups of lower rank." — Stejnegeu, in Pioc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. 5, 1882, pp. 

 174, 175. 



