The Nature Library

HomeVolumesGame Birds

Mergansers; River and Pond Ducks; Sea and Bay Ducks; Geese; Swans

Order Ducks, Geese & Swans

Five subfamilies, numbering about two hundred species, constitute this large family of water fowl that in itself forms a well-defined order. They are the mergansers, river ducks, sea ducks, geese, and swans. All these birds have the margins of the beak (rostrum) furnished with lamels, or plates, tooth-like projections, fluted ridges or gutters along its sides; but the subfamilies are so well defined that their peculiarities would best be noted separately.