OF ORNITHOLOGY 121 



cur seaward to any very great extent, and prefer the shallow 

 waters of marshy or overflowed lands where they can procure 

 a more delicate assortment of fine fresh plant and other food, 

 suited to their taste, than their neighbors the Sea Bucks, who 

 secure their food almost exclusively by diving for it. The 

 flight of River Ducks is generally high, light, and rapid ; 

 while it is, on the contrary, low and heavy — though more 

 often long-sustained than remarkably rapid — with the Sea 

 Ducks. River Ducks are, therefore, very different from Sea 

 Ducks. They might well be styled the more refined and aris- 

 tocratic birds of the family. The genera are : 



Genera, Anas, The Mallard or Black Ducks (3 species). 

 Dafila, The Pintail Duck. 

 Chaulelasmus, The Gadwall Duck. 

 Mareca, The Widgeons (2 species). 

 Querquedula, The Blue-winged Teal and ally. 

 Nettion, The Green-wiDged Teal and ally. 

 Spatula, The Shoveller Duck. 

 Aix, The Wood Duck. 



Mallard hybrids (with other ducks) are not rare, some of these offspring 

 prove fertile, contrary to the generally accepted rule. 



The above generic names seem to have come safely out of the former syno- 

 nymic confusion. A few suggestions are still of interest. Anas formerly 

 stood for almost anything and everything in the Duck family. The student 

 will avoid a great deal of confusion by paying little attention to former 

 uses of Nettion and Querquedula other than as given above. Various 

 names ending in nessa, such as Dendronessa, Lampronessa, etc., have been 

 used for the Wood Duck ; this will only show its formerly supposed kin- 

 ship with the " Tree " Ducks (our present Goose form) Dendrocygna. 



Sub-family d FULIG-ULIN^I Sea Ducks 



The Sea Ducks are eminently diving ducks. While the 

 River Ducks do not seem to glide into the Sea Ducks, yet the 

 Sea Ducks do seem to glide into the River Ducks, and then to 

 glide out again as serenely as if they had never seemed to ap- 

 proach them. We see, in this family especially, the absurdity 

 of what I call the linear theory, or trying to arrange each 

 species according to its likeness to the one before and the one 

 following it. Sea Ducks love the Sea ; and are generally found 



