  The Sturm-Liouville equation represents the linearized form of the
first-order Riccati equation. This provides an evidence for the connection
between Schwarzian derivative and this first-order nonlinear differential
equation. Similar connection is not obvious for higher-order equations in the
Riccati chain because the corresponding linear equations are of order greater
than two. With special attention to the second- and third-order Riccati
equations we demonstrate that Schwarzian derivative has a natural space in
higher Riccati equations. There exist higher-order analogues of the Schwarztan
derivative. We demonstrate that equations in the Riccati hierarchy are embedded
in these higher-order derivatives.
