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| Duck is the common name for a number of species in the
Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several
subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article; they do not
represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, being the
Anatidae not considered swans and geese. Ducks are mostly
aquatic birds, mostly smaller than the swans and geese, and may
be found in both fresh water and sea water. The word duck (from
Anglo-Saxon dūce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to
duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed *dūcan) meaning "to bend down
low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the
way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending
(compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This
happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and
ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic
languages still have similar words for