NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



of swans, all of the genus Olor, making up the fourth and last 

 subfamily or the Cygninae. I have osteological material illustrating 

 nearly all the different genera. Some of it belongs to my own 

 private collection, now in the New York State Museum ; more of 

 it to the United States National Museum ; while I am under obliga- 

 tion to Mr F. E. Beddard F. R. S. for a skeleton of N e 1 1 a 

 r u f i n a . 



Regarding the Anseres as a whole, Newton claims that the 

 Anatidae may be at once divided into six more or less well marked 

 subfamilies: (i) the Cygninae (swans), (2) the Anserinae (geese) 

 — which are really very distinct, (3) the Anatinae or Fresh-water 

 -ducks, (4) those commonly called Fuligulinae or Sea ducks (poch- 

 ards), (5) the Erismaturinae or Spring-tailed ducks, and (6) the 

 Merginae (mergansers). 1 



Professor Huxley placed the Anseres in his Desmognathae (sub- 

 order III), arranging them in the following order, thus: 



Group 1 Chenomorphae 



Family 1 .Anatidae, with Palamedea 

 Group 2 Amphimorphae 



(Genus Phoenicopterus) 

 Group 3 Pelargomorphae 



Family 1 Ardeidae 



2 Ciconiidae 



3 Tantalidae 



From what has been said above, it will be seen that the objection 

 to this arrangement is the associating of Palameda in the same 

 family with the Anatidae, about the unnaturalness of which there 

 •can be no question. It is infinitely nearer the truth, however, than 

 the classification proposed by Garrod who placed the fowls 

 (Gallinae), screamers, rails, bustards, flamingoes, Musophagidae, 

 and cuckoos, all in one " cohort," and the Anseres including the 

 penguins, divers and grebes in an entirely different order ( Anseri- 

 formes), and these separated from the former by a "cohort" in- 

 cluding only the parrots. It would be hard indeed to conceive 

 of a more extraordinary scheme than this. 



In Dr Sclaters taxonomy we find the following proposed : 



Order VII Herodiones a Ardeidae 



b Ciconiidae 

 c Plataleidae 



VIII Odontoglossae Phoenicopterus 



IX Palamedeae I'alamedeidae 



X Anseres 



And, so far as grouping goes, this arrangement, in my opinion, is 

 a very natural one indeed. 



1 Duck, lMct. of Birds, 1893. pt 1, p. 16S. 



