482 Mr. N. A. Vicors on the Natural Affinities 
the family we have just quitted, with the exception of its being 
articulated higher on the tarsus, ‘The genus Lophophorus of 
M. Temminck, which is represented by the Impeyan Pheasant 
of our cabinets, and the genus Gallus of M. Brisson, appear 
to hold an intermediate station, with respect to these characters 
of the hind toe, between the groups just mentioned and the true 
Phasianus, which forms the type of the family. Some groups. 
deviating from the latter genus, among which is the Argus of 
M. Temminck, unite themselves to Numida, Linn., by the ab- 
sence of the spur on the farsus. ‘The last-mentioned genus re- 
conducts us again to Meleagris, which it resembles in general 
appearance, while at the same time it approaches it with reference 
to the integrity of the tarsus, that of the true Meleagris possessing 
but a short and blunt excrescence, which exhibits only the rudi- 
ments of a spur. ] 
- The groups of the Tetraonidæ are chiefly distinguished in 
modern systems from those of the Phasianidæ by their more 
simple appearance ; by the absence, in fact, of those ornaments 
to the plumage, and those naked or carunculated appendages 
to the cheeks and head, so conspicuous in the latter family, but 
which are reduced in the present to the mere space that encircles 
the eye. "The still weaker conformation of the hinder toe tends 
further to separate them. In the Tetraonide this member be- 
comes shorter and gradually weaker, until it is completely lost 
in some of the groups. In this point of view the family before 
us holds an intermediate station between the PAhasianide, where 
the hind toe, although articulated high on the tarsus, is yet 
comparatively strong, and the Struthionide, where it is gene- 
rally, if not always, deficient. The groups that compose the 
Tetraonide, corresponding with those which form the genus Te- 
trao of Linnæus, seem to be immediately united to the prece- 
ding family by means of the genus Cryptonyz, Temm., which 
resembles 
