that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 481 
earlier groups, than those of the Gallinaceous Birds in general. 
The first group which we meet in this extensive family is the genus 
Vinago of M. Cuvier, the bills of which, stronger and more solid 
than they are usually found to be among the Pigeons, unite them 
to Penelope and Crar, which form the opposite extreme of the 
present order, as well as to Musophaga and Corythair, which 
approach, as we have seen, the whole of the groups before us, 
and connect them with the Perchers. From this genus Vinago, 
which seems confined to the southern divisions of the Old World, 
we may observe a series of groups leading gradually to the true 
Columba, of which genus the European species C. venas, Linn. 
may be considered to form the type. Hence we are led by seve- 
ral intervening species to the ** Columbi-Gallines" of M. Le Vail- 
lant, which, still retaining the soft and flexible bill of Columba, 
approach the typical Gallinaceous Birds in their more elevated 
tarsi, and in their habits of living in company and seeking their 
nourishment chiefly on the ground. Among these may be noticed 
some forms, C. Nicobarica, Linn., and C. carunculata, Temm., for 
instance, which possess the feathered appendages, together with 
the naked face and caruncles ofthe Linnean Galline ; and another 
group, the Lophyrus of M. Vieillot, which exhibits the size and 
general form of the same birds, as well as the singular plumes 
which frequently decorate their head. This last-mentioned genus, 
formed of the Crowned Pigeon of India, possessing the strongly- 
formed leg and foot of Meleagris, Linn., but without the spurs, 
while at the same time it retains the bill of Columba, may be 
observed to open the passage inmneiiintely from the present to 
the succeeding family. 
The genus Meleagris thus introduces us into the family of — 
Phasianide. In conjunction with. Pavo, Linn., and Polyplec- 
tron, 'Temm., that genus commences the present group by the 
greater length of the hinder toe, in which character it resembles 
the 
