EGRETS An egret ( /irt/) is any of several herons, most of which are white or buff, and several of which develop

fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Many egrets are members of the genera gretta or Ardea which contain other species named as herons rather than egrets. !he distinction between a heron and an egret is rather vague, and depends more on appearance than biology. !he word "egret" comes from the #rench word "aigrette" that means both "silver heron" and "brush," referring to the long filamentous feathers that seem to cascade down an egret$s back during the breeding season. DUCK Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. !he ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family% they do not represent a monophyletic group (the group of all descendants of a single common ancestral species) but a form ta&on, since swans and geese are not considered ducks. 'ucks are mostly a(uatic birds, mostly smaller than the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. SPOONBILL Spoonbills are a group of large, long)legged wading birds in the family !hreskiornithidae, which also includes the *bises. All have large, flat, spatulate bills and feed by wading through shallow water, sweeping the partly opened bill from side to side. !he moment any small a(uatic creature touches the inside of the bill+an insect, crustacean, or tiny fish+it is snapped shut. ,poonbills generally prefer fresh water to salt but are found in both environments. !hey need to feed many hours each day. SNAKES Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless li-ards by their lack of eyelids and e&ternal ears. .ike all s(uamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with many more /oints than their li-ard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads with their highly mobile /aws. !o accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes$ paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in

front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. ,ome species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. LI ARDS Li!ar"s are a widespread group of s(uamate reptiles, with nearly 0122 species, 345 ranging across all continents e&cept Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains. !he group, traditionally recogni-ed as the suborder Lacertilia, is defined as all e&tant members of the .epidosauria (reptiles with overlapping scales), which are neither sphenodonts (i.e., tuatara) nor snakes 6 they form an evolutionary grade.375 8hile the snakes are recogni-ed as falling phylogenetically within the !o&icofera clade from which they evolved, the ,phenodonts are the sister group to the ,(uamates, the larger monophyletic group, which includes both the li-ards and the snakes. PELICAN A pelican, derived from the 9reek word :;<;=>? pelekys (meaning @a&eA and applied to birds that cut wood with their bills or beaks) is a large water bird with a large throat pouch, belonging to the bird family Pelecani"ae. Along with the darters, cormorants, gannets, boobies, frigatebirds, and tropicbirds, pelicans make up the order Belecaniformes. Modern pelicans, of which there are eight species, are found on all continents e&cept Antarctica. !hey primarily inhabit warm regions, though breeding ranges reach CDE south (Australian Belican, B. conspicillatus) and F2E Gorth (American 8hite Belicans, B. erythrorhynchos, in western Hanada).345 Iirds of inland and coastal waters, they are absent from polar regions, the deep ocean, oceanic islands, and inland ,outh America. GOOSE#GEESE !he word goose (pluralJ geese) is the nglish name for a group of waterfowl, belonging to the family Anatidae. !his family also includes swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller. A number of other waterbirds, mostly related to the shelducks, have "goose" as part of their name.