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Genus FULIGULA. 



Anas apud Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 203 (1766). 



Nyroca apud Fleming, Phil, of Zool. ii. p. 260 (1822). 



Aythya apud Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 564. 



Branta apud Boie, ut supra. 



Fuligula, Stephens in Shaw's Gen. Zool. xii. p. 187 (1824). 



Platypus apud C. L. Brehm, Lehrb. Naturg. eur. Vog. ii. p. 828 (1824). 



Netta apud Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 102 (1829). 



Callichen apud C. L. Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 922 (1831). 



Fulix apud Sundevall, K. Vet. Ak. Handl. 1835, p. 129. 



Mergoides apud Eyton, Cat. Brit. B. p. 57 (1836). 



Marila apud Bonaparte, Compt. Bend. xlii. pt. ii. p. 651 (1856). 



The Ducks belonging to this and the following genera are more especially marine in their habits, 

 and are all good divers, differing in this respect from the preceding genera. The genus Fuligula 

 is represented in the Palsearctic, Ethiopian, Oriental, Australian, and Nearctic Begions, four 

 species being found in the Western Palsearctic Begion. 



They frequent fresh water during the nesting-season, breeding, as a rule, in the northern 

 portions of the Palsearctic and Nearctic Begions; but at other seasons of the year they frequent 

 the sea-coasts, and are not, as a rule, met with on inland water. They are very good divers, 

 often remaining some time under water, and generally obtain their food by diving ; but they are 

 clumsy walkers and seldom stray far from the water. They fly fast, usually at no great altitude ; 

 and when they alight they do so very suddenly. They feed on small marine shell-fish, on insects, 

 fish, &c. ; and when frequenting fresh water they will also feed on vegetable matter. They nest 

 on the ground, making a nest of down in a depression in the soil, and deposit numerous pale- 

 buff or greenish-buff eggs. 



Fuligula cristata, the type of the genus, has the bill nearly as long as the head, about as 

 wide as high at the base, depressed, and broadening towards the tip, where it is broad and 

 rounded ; unguis small, oval, flattened, and decurved ; nostrils small, oval, placed in the lower 

 anterior part of the nasal sinus ;. gape-line slightly curved; the upper mandible overlapping the 

 lower one, the ends of the lamellae nearly concealed ; trachea with the inferior portion of the 

 tube contracted ; inferior larynx with one lateral bulb, partly membranous, partly osseous, the 

 other side compressed; wings short, pointed, the first and second quills longest; tail small, 

 rounded ; legs short, placed far aft ; tarsus compressed, anteriorly scutellate ; hind toe slender 

 but broadly lobed, anterior toes double the length of the tarsus ; interdigital membranes emar- 

 ginate ; claws moderate, slightly curved, moderately acute. 



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