anatida

[From Lat. anas = the Duck genus.) A family of birds, the last of the Natatorial, or Swimming order. They have a flattened bill covered with a soft skin, and furnished at the edges with a series of lamellæ, with which they sift the mud in which they seek their food. The family contains geese and swans as well as ducks, and has been divided into the following sub-families: Anatinæ (True ducks); Fuligulinæ (Pochards); Merginæ (Mergansers); Cygninæ (Swans); Anserinæ (Geese); and Phenic opter inæ (Flamingoes), the last-named sub-family connecting the family Anatidæ and the order Nat a to res, or Swimming, with the Grallatores, or Wading Birds. ăn-at-if-er-ous, a. [Mod. Lat. anas, and fero to bear.] Producing ducks or geese, i.e., barnacles. [BARNACLE, 2.] "If there be anatiferous trees whose corruption breaks forth into bernacles, yet if they corrupt, they degenerate into maggots, which produce not them again."-Browne: Vulgar Errours , bk. iii., ch. xii.