ANATIB^ — FULIGULIN^ : SEA BUCKS. 699 



in consequence of which the gait is still more awkward and constrained than the '' waddle" of 

 ordinary ducks; but swimming powers are enhanced, and diving is facilitated. A large 

 number of the species are exclusively maritime, but this is no more the case with all of them, 

 than is the reverse with the river ducks. These birds feed more upon moUusks and other 

 animal snbstances (not, however, upon fish, like the mergansers) than the river ducks do, and 

 their flesh, as a rule, is coarser, if not entirely too rank to be eaten ; there are, however, signal 

 exceptions to this, as in the ease of the canvas-back. The sexes are unlike, as among the 

 AnaimuB ; and besides the difierence in color, the ? is often distinguished by the absence or 

 slight development of certain tuberosities of the bill that the $ of several species, as of scoters 

 and eiders, possesses. A large majority of the species inhabit the Northern Hemisphere ; there 

 are some forty in all, exhibiting a good deal of diversity in minor details, really requiring 

 recognition of many genera. Among notable exotics, we have the soft-billed Hymenoltsmus 

 malacorhynchus of New Zealand, and the short-winged Micropt&rus oi/nereus of South America, 

 both related to our genus CamptoltBmus ; there are but few others. The genus Erismatwa Is 

 the type of a small group remarkable for the character of the tail, as described beyond, and 

 sometimes considered as a subfamily apart. Biziiwa lobata of Australia, with a fleshy appen- 

 dage under the bUl, tlie African Thalassornis leuconota, the Nesonetta aucMcmdica, and several 

 species of Erismatura and Nomonyx, compose tliis group. 



Analysis qf Genera and Subgenera. 



Tail-featliers rigid, narrow, linear, exposed to their bases by shortness of coverts. 



Nail of bill ordinary . . Nomanyx 299 



Nail of bill narrow above, overhanging and widened beneath tip otbill Erismatura 298 



Tail-feathers and their coverts ordinary (central pair very long, however, in Harelda cf ). 

 Bill variously gibbous, or appendaged, or feathered beyond nostrils. 



Bill gibbous at base, then broad, depressed, with large fused nail, without frontal processes. 

 Gibbosity of bill superior, circumscribed ; feathers not projected on culmen. 



Tail 16-feathered. J : Color entirely black (CEdemia) ... 

 Gibbosity of bill superior, circumscribed; feathers projected on culmen. Tail 14- [ (Wfipm'a. 297 



feathered, (f : Color black or dark, with white wing-patch (Melanetta) 

 Gibbosity lateral as well as superior; feathers projected on culmen. 

 Tail 14-feathered. (f : Color black, with white head-patches (Pelionbtta) 

 Bill gibbous at base, with large frontal processes. 



Frontal processes in line with culmen {Somateria proper) 



Frontal processes bulging out of line with culmen (Brionetta) . . . . \somateria 296 



Bill not gibbous, but feathered on culmen beyond nostrils (Akotonetta) .... 

 Bill not gibbous, but appendaged with leathery expansion of side of upper maudible, 



cheeksnot bristly (Henicostetta) . . 



Bill not gibbous, but appendaged with a lobe at base of commissure ... . Slstrionicus 29B 



Bill not gibbous, but appendaged with a leathery expansion of side of upper mandible; cheeks 



bristly Camptolcemus 294 



Bill ordinary. ^ 



Nail of bill large, fused. Tail (of (f) about as long as wing Harelda 293 



Nail of bill narrow, distinct. Tail of ordinary length and shape. 



Bill shorter than head, high at base. Head of J puffy or crested, iridescent, with ) 



white patches ; crissum white ; colors black and white, in masses [ Clanaula 292 



cf, white spot before eye (Clangula proper) . . . . . . . ( 



(f, white patch behind eye (Bucbphala) . . . . ) 



Bill about as long as head. Head of J' black, red, or brown, without spots ; oris- N 



sum dark . r 



Bill dusky. Head of Ji dusky reddish (Aristonbtta) >Fuligiaa 291 



Bill bluish or blackish. Head of cf black or red. (FuLix) [ 



Bill red. Head red, crested (European). (Fuligula proper) / 



Note. — See further analyses of the subgenera (some of which ar^of generio value) under heads of (Edemia, 

 Somateria, and FuligiiiJa. 



1. FULI'GIILA. (Lat. fuUguh or fuUcula, dim. of fu^x or fuMca, a coot; fuligo, soot.) 

 Black-head and Bed-head Ducks. Scaup.s and Pochards. Bid ordinary, without 

 special gibbosity or peculiar outlino of feathers at base, only in one species (F- va,lUsneria) 



