$Unique_ID{BRD00635}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Family XXXIX.--Anatinae.  Ducks}
$Subject{Anatinae; Ducks}
$Journal{Birds of America:  Volume VI}
$Volume{Vol. 6:167-168}
$Family{Anatinae}
$Genus{}
$Species{}
$Common_Name{Ducks}
$Log{}

       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       B I R D S   O F   A M E R I C A .

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. SS. L. & E.

                   ------------------------------------------
                                   VOL.  VI.
                        --------------------------------


                        FAMILY XXXIX.--ANATINAE.  DUCKS.


     Bill of moderate length, stout, straight, depressed toward the end, obtuse,
covered with soft skin; upper mandible transversely convex, with the margins
internally lamellate, the tip furnished with a decurved horny broad unguis;
lower mandible with the angle long and narrow, the crura slender, flattened, the
edges internally lamellate, the tip a flattened unguis.  Nostrils elliptical,
open, sub-basal.  Head of moderate size; neck long or of moderate length,
slender; body full; legs generally short, stout, with little of the tibia bare;
tarsus scutellate; toes four, first small; anterior three palmate.  Claws
moderate, arched, compressed, obtuse.  Plumage very full, dense, soft.  Wings of
moderate length, curved, acute, outer two quills longest.  Tail short, of twelve
or more feathers.  Tongue fleshy, with a median groove, lateral reversed
papillae, laminae, or bristles, and a semicircular thin horny tip; oesophagus
narrow, slightly enlarged at the lower part of the neck; stomach a transversely
elliptical gizzard, of which the lateral muscles are excessively developed, the
epithelium dense, with two concave finding surfaces; intestine long and wide;
coeca long, cylindrical, contracted at the base.  Trachea various generally much
enlarged at the bifurcation, without inferior laryngeal muscles, or only with
the slips of the lateral muscles prolonged.  Nest generally on the ground; eggs
numerous.  Young clothed with stiffish down, and able to walk and swim from
birth.