ANATID.E. 435 



ANATID.E. 



The birds of this family are of great importance in the fur-countries, as they 

 furnish at certain seasons in the year, in many extensive districts, almost the only 

 article of food that can be procured. The arrival of the water-fowl marks the 

 commencement of spring, and diffuses as much joy among the wandering hunters 

 of the Arctic regions as the harvest or vintage excites in more genial climes. 

 The period of their migration southwards again, in large flocks at the close of 

 summer, is another season of plenty, bountifully granted to the natives and fitting 

 them for encountering the rigour and privations of a northern winter. The Ana- 

 tid/e have, therefore, very naturally, been observed more attentively than any 

 other family of birds, both by the Indians and white residents of the fur-countries; 

 and as they form the bulk of the specimens that have been transmitted to England, 

 they are also better known to ornithologists. The various genera presenting 

 only shades of difference in their habits, and crowding almost promiscuously 

 to the same places of resort, we have, with the view of saving space, thrown the 

 little we have to say on these subjects into a tabular form, instead of repeating 

 nearly the same account under each species. — R. 



The numerous forms comprised in this family, and the variety of species dis- 

 tributed in the seas of Europe, have more especially drawn the attention of British 

 Ornithologists to the natural arrangement of the Anatid^e. Accordingly two 

 well known writers of our own days, Drs. Leach and Fleming, have named and 

 characterised nearly all the northern groups, and two circular dispositions of the 

 family have been given by Mr. Vigors. In the first (Linn. Tr., xiv. 499), the 

 Mergansers are made to go between the Anatinm, Sw. and the Fuligulince, Sw., 

 and these latter are stated to lead immediately to the Geese. In the second 

 (Zool. Journ., ii. 404), the Swans are separated as a distinct sub-family, and the 

 Mergansers are thrown into the same division with the Fuligulince, Sw. We 

 scarcely know which of these circular arrangements is most objectionable, as 

 least borne out by analysis, or by the general opinion of all other ornithologists. 

 They are plainly the result of theory, and of a theory misapplied. The correct- 

 ness of this our opinion has been anatomically demonstrated by Mr. Yarrell, in 

 his highly valuable paper on the Trachea? of Birds (Linn. Trans., xv. p. 378), to 

 which we must refer the reader. The circumstances now alluded to are, however, 

 too important to be thus dismissed, since they afford one of the most singular 

 proofs in support of the circular succession of affinities, as developed by Mr. 

 Mac Leay, at the same time shewing how easily the theory may be applied to any 



3 K 2 



