278 



ANATID^, GEESE, DUCKS, ETC. GEN. 246. 



and other material, whicli the bu-ds bestride in an ungainly attitude ; but it is not 

 high enough to permit their long legs to dangle, as represented in some popular 

 accounts and pictorial efforts. The young are said, on good authority, to take to 

 the water as soon as hatched. 



1"^ 



^ 246. Genus PHCENICOPTEEUS Linnseus. 



^ American Flamingo. Adult iDlumage scarlet ; most of the quill feathers 

 black; legs lake-red; bill orange-yellow, black-tipped. Length about 4 

 feet; wing 16 inches; tail 6; bill 5; tarsus 12; middle toe and claw 3J. 

 Florida and Gulf coast; N. casually to S. Carolina {Audubon). Wii.S., 

 viii, 45, pi. 66; Nutt., ii, 70; Aud., vi, 169, pi. 375; Bd., 687. ruber. 



Family ANATID^. Geese, Ducks, etc. 



Bill lamellate, stout, more or less elevated and compressed at base, widened or 

 flattened at tip, invested with soft, tough, leathery membrane, except at the end, 

 which is furnished with a hard, horny " nail," generally somewhat overhanging, 

 sometimes small and distinct, sometimes large and fused ; that is, changing insen- 

 sibly into the general covering. (This soft covering is regarded by some as a 

 prolonged cere ; but this is purely theoretical.) Body full, heavy, flattened beneath ; 

 neck of variable length ; head large ; eyes small. No antiae, the frontal feathers 

 eucroaeliing on the culmen with a convex or pointed out- 

 line, and forming other projections on the sides of the bill, 

 and in the interramal space, which latter is broad and long, 

 the mandibular crura being united oulj' at the end by a broad 

 short bridge ; no culminal ridge nor keel of gonys. Nostrils 

 *^^^^ subbasal, median or subterminal, usually broadly oval. 



Fig. 181. Wild Duck. Wings of moderate length (rarely very short), stiff, strong, 

 pointed, conferring rapid, vigorous, whistling flight ; a wild duck at full speed is 

 said to make ninet}' miles an hour. Tail of variable shape, but usually short and 

 rounded, never forked, sometimes cuneate, of 12-24 feathers, usuallj' 14-16, the 

 under coverts very long and full, forming a conspicuous crissal tuft. Feet short ; 

 knees buried in the general integument ; tibioe feathered nearly or quite to the 

 suffrage ; tarsi reticulate or scutellate, or both ; toes palmate, the hinder always 

 present and free, simple or lobate. Wing occasionally spurred. 



Like the gallinaceous, the anserine tj'pe is a familiar one, comprising all kinds 

 of "water-fowl," among which are the originals of all our domestic breeds of swans, 

 geese and ducks, that vie with poultiy in point of economic consequence, ornament 

 our parks, or furnish exquisite material for wearing apparel. But additional infor- 

 mation respecting the structure of this, the largest aud most important family of 

 swimming birds, may be desirable. It is definitely characterized b}^ many impor- 

 tant poiuts besides those external features just stated. In palatal structure, the 

 Anatidce are desmognathous ; "the lachiymal region of the skull is remarkably long 

 [the lachrj'inal bone itself is large]. The basisphenoidal nostrum has oval sessile 

 basipterygoid facets. The flat and lamellar maxillo-palatiues unite and form a 

 bridge across the palate. The angle of the mandible is produced and greatly 

 recurved" (Huxley). The interorbital septum is more or less completely ossified, 

 and the orbits are better defined than in many birds, by well developed processes. 

 The premaxillary is large, and its three prongs are so extensively fused that only a 



