864 
Birds of Celebes: Ardeidae. 
Distribution. Great Sangi (Bruijn a 1)\ Halmahera (Bruijn a 1, b 1)] Batchian, Morty and 
Burn (fide Sharpe c 1). 
Count Salvadori points out that, while this species resembles X.JlavicoUis 
in all its dimensions, it difiers from that species by its uniform black coloration. 
He dismisses the supposition that it is a melanotic form, having seen two similar 
individuals. It is a rare species, and the only examples so far recorded from 
Sangi are the type, stated by Laglaize to have been obtained by Bruijn’s 
hunters in the Sangi Is, and the specimen in the Dresden Museum labelled Sangi 
— collector unknown — which we believe to belong to this species. Further 
confirmation of its occurrence in this island is desirable, also to decide the 
question whether it may not he only a melanistic form of X. flavicoUis. 
ORDER ANSERES. 
In the “Catalogue of Birds (vol. XXVII, 1895) Count Salvadori, following 
Prof. Huxley, groups the Phoenicopteri, Palamedeae and Anseres in the order 
Chenomorphae. Dr. Gadow (Bronn’s Kl. u. Ord. VI, 4, Vog. H, 1893, 144) ex- 
cludes the Phoenicopteri, placing them among the Ciconiiformes, and leaves the 
Anseres and Palamedeae to form the order Anseriformes Mr. Sclater in 1880 
regarded the Palamedeae as a distinct order, which he places next to the true 
Anseres (Newton, D. B. 820). The Anseres, with these two more or less closely 
allied orders or suborders excluded, embrace the Geese, Swans, Ducks and 
Mergansers. These are well characterized by the bill, which is more or less 
broad and flat, the edges with a pectinated fringe or serrated, the tip furnished 
with a nail; by the short tarsus which is about as long as the middle toe or 
less; by the toes, the three in front fully webbed, and the hallux, which is often 
very minute, not connected with the other toes by a w'eb. Among their internal, 
etc. characters may be mentioned: the desmognathous palate, with the basi- 
pterygoid processes placed very far forward, as in the Gallr, the sternum with 
two pairs of notches, sometimes forming into fenestrae; “the tongue is large, 
fleshy, with the margins toothed” (Salvadori, Gadow); the ulna does not exceed 
the humerus in length, the wing is short and its motion in flight swift and 
accompanied by a whizzing noise, very different from what is noticed in the 
Gulls, which resemble the Anseres in certain respects. The Anseres feed upon 
vegetable matter, fish, etc. In many genera of the Ducks the male wears a 
handsome nuptial dress. The eggs are unspotted and numerous, placed in an 
inartificial nest, often composed in part of the down of the parent bird; the 
young are covered with down, and capable of running and swimming immediately 
after issuing from the egg. 
