CHAPTER XXVIir 



THE ORDER OF DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS 



ANATIDAE 



We have now reached the first Order of a great group of birds which might well stand as a Sub- 

 class — the Web-Footed Swimmers. It embraces six different Orders, and before touching any 

 one of them, it is highly necessary that the student should take a bird's-eye view of the whole sub- 

 division. A clear conception of these six Orders, and the characters on which they are based, will 

 be of great and, perpetual service to every person who desires a comprehensive view of the avian 

 world : 



THE ORDERS OF SWIMMING-BIRDS. 



THE 



WEB-FOOTED 



BIRDS. 



FLYING 

 SWIMMERS: 



with good 

 wings. 



DIVING 

 SWIMMERS: 



with small 



wings, or none 



for flight. 



Ducks and Geese 



(three toes webbed). 



Fully Palmated Birds 



(four toes webbed) . 

 Cormorants, PeUcans, Snake- 

 Birds, etc. 



Tube-Nosed Swimmers. 



Albatrosses and Petrels. 



Long-Winged Swimmers. 



Gulls, Terns, etc. 



Weak-Winged Divers. 



Loons, Grebes, Auks, Puf- 

 fins. 



Flightless Divers. 



Penguins. im-pen'nes. 



AN-A-Tl'DAE. 



STEG-AN-OP'0-DES. 



TU-BI-NA'RES. 



LON-GI-PEN'NES. 



PY-GOP'0-DES. 



This group is not only extensive, but its mem- 

 bers show a wide diversity in form and habits, 

 and they are fitted for life in all climates, on 

 waters great and small. Having before us 

 such a host of swimming-birds that six Orders 

 are necessary to classify them, it is difficult to 

 select only a few examples, and resolutely ex- 

 clude all others. However, the student who 

 becomes permanently acquainted with about 

 thirty-five web-footed birds specially chosen 

 to represent these Orders, will have a very good 

 foundation on which to build higher, with the 

 aid of special books and specimens. 



As heretofore, we will take up the selected 

 examples in the order in which it is easiest for 



367 



the student to receive them, — the highest types 

 first, — rather than in the very curious sequence 

 adopted by the A. 0. U., and most technical 

 writers on birds. 



Once a year, the grand army of birds of the 

 Order Anatidae take wing, and sweep north- 

 ward from the tropics and sub-tropics. Many 

 halt in the temperate zone, where food is abun- 

 dant, but many more press on to the arctic 

 circle, and far beyond it. Wherever they pause 

 for the summer, they nest and rear their young p 

 and many pages might be filled with descriptions 

 of the different kinds of nesting-sites and nests. 



One would naturally suppose that in any 

 civiUzed country, birds in flight to their breeding- 



