ANSERES, in natural history, the third order of bird.s, according to the Linnzan system: they are distinguished. by a smooth bill, covered with a soft: skin and broader at the point ; feet formed for swimming ; toes. palmate, connected by a. membrane; shanks short, and compress ed ; body fat and downyy flesh mostly tough ; their food is fish, frogs, aquatic plants, worms, &c. They make their nests generally on the ground; the mo ther takes but litde care in providing for the young. They. arc frequently poly gamous. They are divided into those genera having bills with, arid those with out, teeth : of' the former arc the .
Of the latter are the Alea, Peleeanus, Aptenodytes, Procellaria, Colymbus, Prynchops, Diomedea, and Larus, Sterna.
This order comprehends all kinds of wa ter-fowl whose feet are palmated. The webbed feet of these birds are admirably adapted to aid them in swimming; and the greater quantity of oil secreted by the glands near the tail, and rubbed by means of their bills over all the feathers of their body, enables them to live on the water, without ever being wet. They live most
ly on fish, and some of them have been occasionally tamed to the catching of fish for the use of their masters. In some of the lakes of China, where the water-fowl abound, the natives have the following in genious mode of catching them: For se veral days before they attempt to take them, many empty gourd-shells are set afloat on the wateF, to habituate the birds to their appeara4ce ; and when they are observed to take no notice of these shells, but to swim among them, a man, with one of the same kind upon his head, goes into the lake, and wades or swims among the birds with nothing but his head above the water. He now begins his sport, and taking the birds by their legs, draws them under water, breaks their necks, and fas tens them to his girdle, one after another, till he is sufficiently loaded, and then re turns to the shore.