ANSERIFOEMES. 
application to tlie varied forms has converted the workers to the same 
ideas as the genus-splitters. Whatever the speculation, the notable result 
is the almost universal admission of restricted genera in this group. 
An interpellation of a summary by Stejneger {Stand. Nat. Hist., 1885, 
p. 136) may precede more serious criticism : “ It is needless here to enlarge 
upon the characters peculiar to the Anatoidece (his name for the Anseri- 
formes of this work) or duck-tribe, in its widest sense. It is one of the 
best circumscribed superfamilies of recent birds, and its distinguishing 
characters so well-marked externally, that nobody fails to recognise any 
member at an instant, be it a swan, a goose, a duck, or a merganser, and 
most of the systematic names invented for the group, as Lamellirostres, etc., 
have been invented from the soft-skinned bill with the curious lamellar 
teeth. Most of the species take their food under water, and when the 
head is raised, the water runs out between the lamellae, which act like a 
sieve in retaining the food, which led to the invention of the English word 
‘ sifters,’ as an equivalent of Lamellirostres. In some forms the lameUse 
are shortened and thickened so as to enable them to act as teeth in 
nipping off grass, as for instance, in the geese, while in the mergansers 
they are modified into retrorse hooks, which serve to prevent the slimy fish 
from slipping away.” 
The latest monograph of the Order is that by Salvadori in the 
Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum, Vol. XXVII., 1895, and this is 
noteworthy in that though it is the work of a genus-splitter it has been 
almost universally accepted. It is a pity that no generic diagnoses are 
given, and it is necessary to study the Keys provided to understand the 
features Salvadori based his genera upon. It is obvious throughout from 
a study of these that Salvadori utilised coloration as of great importance, 
in some cases subordinating differences in structure to similarity of 
coloration. 
Thus for the genus (Edemia the “ generic ” diagnosis given by ^Salvador! 
reads : “ General plumage of males deep black, of the femalek greyish- 
brown, but not barred.” This is so framed as the species thus associated 
show the same general coloration, though the bill shows great variation, 
much more than is accepted as the basis of generic separation by Salvadori 
when such alteration is accompanied by colour-change. Then in the case 
of the “ genera ” Nettion and Querquedula no other separative characters 
are urged than that the former falls into a section with the “ Upper 
wing-coverts not blue, but of a more or less dark grey,” while the latter has 
the “ Upper wing-coverts blue or bluish-grey.” The structural characters 
as well as coloration in the typical species of these two genera differ very 
3 
