3<>4 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



and pelvic limbs of Anas boschas exhibit almost identically the 

 same characters as those just described above as found in the limb 

 bones of Spatula. 



This is not only true of Anas p 1 a t y r h y n c h o s but also 

 largely so with respect to the limb bones of the teals and of N e 1 1 a 

 1 u f i n a . In the latter the patellae are small, while the terminal 

 claws on the distal digits of pollex and index phalanges are well de- 

 veloped. Dafila acuta has the bones of the pectoral limb 

 rather stout for the size of the species, while on the other hand 



Fig. 31 Skeleton of the right wing of Clangula islandica. Natural size, 

 palmar aspect. Drawn by the author from a specimen in his own collection, now in 

 1' e New York State Museum 



the long bones of the pelvic extremity of this duck are propor- 

 tionately slender; especially does this obtain in the case of the 

 tibiotarsus, and to an almost equal extent in the femur. The vast 

 majority of the Anatinae have the metatarsal bone of hallux in 

 either foot very small indeed. In A i x sponsa the characters arc 

 about the same again, but the limb bones are also stout and shortish 

 in this beautiful species. This is just the reverse of what I find 

 to be the case in the representatives of the genus Marila, as Canvas- 

 backs, Redheads, and the Scaup ducks all have the principal long 

 bones of the -limbs slender and proportionately lengthened, while 

 the limb bones of H a r e 1 d a h y e m a 1 i s are quite identical in 

 character with those of Spatula, being, as a rule, only somewhat 



