72 
HISTORY OF 
OF THE DUCK TRIBE. 
Lamellirostres. Cuvier. 
It is with considerable diffidence that we place before the 
public a sketch of a new arrangement of the above tribe ; but 
not having hitherto seen one in which the anatomical characters, 
with regard to the skeleton at least, was at all considered, we 
venture to propose the following : — 
The genus Mergus we place at the head of the family Lamelli- 
rostres, of the order Palmipides of Cuvier, on account of its near 
alliance with the Divers and Cormorants of the last division, 
(Des Totipalmes, Cuvier ; Totipalmata, Nobis.) The narrow 
elongated pelvis, and long and narrow bill, point it out as 
connected with them ; at the same time that the serrated edges 
of the bill, enlarged inferior larynx of the male birds, and 
lobated hind toe, connect it with the Ducks ; among which 
the genus Fuligula* of Kay, and especially F. Ferina, Stephens, 
is pointed out on account of its largely crested head, and the 
tube of the trachea having two bulbs between the superior and 
inferior larynx : in fact, this Duck presents such differences, both 
external and internal, from the rest of the genus Fuligula, that 
we have separated it from that genus, £nd placed it in a new 
one, (Mergoides, Nobis.) We shall also separate F. Stelleri, 
Pallas, placing it as a sub genus under Fuligula, for which we 
* We have more than once, in dissecting birds of this genus, taken 
the remains of small fish from the gizzard, and once a nearly perfect 
one from the oesophagus of F. Ferina, Linnaeus. Should this mode of 
feeding be constant, it connects this genus still more nearly with the 
Mergansers. 
