Order AN SERES 
THE LAMELLIROSTRAL SWIMMERS. 
Char. Lamellirostral Swimming Birds, with straight hills, short legs (always 
shorter than the wing), the tibiae usually completely feathered, and scarcely free 
from the body ; hallux well developed, though usually small, never absent. Repro- 
duction praecocial, and young ptilopsedic ; eggs numerous and unmarked, with a 
hard, usually very smooth, shell. 
Like the Phoenicopteri, the Order Anseres is composed of a single family, which, 
however, includes very numerous genera and species. The Order is represented in 
every portion of the globe, but most numerously in the northern hemisphere. 
Family ANATIDA5. — The Swans, Geese, and Ducks. 
Char. The same as those of the Order. 
The Family Anatidce, which includes all the known Anseres proper, or Lamelli- 
rostral Swimmers, constitutes so well-marked and natural a group of birds as to need 
no further definition than that given above. The Anatidce are allied most nearly to 
the Phcenicopteridce, or Flamingoes, which, however, are trenchantly separated by 
many striking peculiarities of structure. The species being very numerous, naturally 
fall into several more or less well-defined groups, which have been accorded the rank 
of sub-families. These, however, grade so insensibly into one another, that it is 
extremely doubtful whether this rank can be maintained for them . 1 Birds of this 
family are found in every known part of the world ; but they abound most in the 
northern hemisphere, particularly in boreal regions. The North American repre- 
sentatives may, for convenience of classification, be divided into three tolerably 
well-defined groups, as follows : — 
Cygninae. Neck extremely long (as long as or longer than the body) ; size very large ; bill 
longer than the head, the edges parallel, the nail small ; tarsi shorter than middle toe ; 
lores naked ; tail-feathers 20-24 ; color chiefly or entirely white (except in Chenopis 
atrata, the Black Swan of Australia). 
1 “ The whole family Anatidce forms, as to structural features, a very homogeneous group, and inter- 
mediate links are everywhere to be found. Thus it is very difficult to define the sub-families anatomically, 
and to give the structural differences by which they are to be separated, so that I find it not improbable 
that an exact investigation, based on a more abundant material than I can at present procure, will reduce 
the sub-families to groups of lower rank.” — Stejnegek, in Pioc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Yol. 5, 1882, pp. 
174, 175. 
