that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 483 
resembles them in the similar appendage to the plumage of the 
head. This group leads directly to Coturnix, Briss., and the true 
Perdix, where it has indeed been generally arranged, and from 
which it has been chiefly separated by the defalcation of a nail to 
the hinder toe. - From Perdix we proceed to Pterocles, Temm., 
which, by its half-plumed tarsus, is intermediate between that 
genus and the true Tetrao. By means of Lagopus, Cuv., in which 
the toes as well as the legs are feathered, we arrive at the singular 
genus Syrrhaptes of M. Illiger, which is immediately connected 
with the Ortygis of the same author, by the entire deficiency of 
the hind toe. With these groups the genus Tinamus, Lath. cor- 
responds by the slight conformation of the same member, the 
joint of which is feeble, and the nail scarcely developed. This 
group leads us back again to Cryptonyx, which we may remem- 
ber has no nail to the joint of the hinder toe. ‘The whole of 
these last-mentioned groups thus united correspond also in the 
shortness and weakness of their tails. 
Those birds of the latter family, which exhibit a weakness or 
a deficiency in the hinder toe, lead us at once to the three-toed 
groups of the Struthionide, with the bills of which, more particu- 
larly that of Rhea, those of some species of Tinamus correspond *. 
This family contains the ** Brevipennes" of M. Cuvier, together 
with the genus Otis of Linnzus, which evidently agrees with 
them in their principal characters. It corresponds also with the 
order **Cursores" of M. Temminck, with the exception of the 
genus Cursorius of Dr. Latham, which possesses more of the 
characters of the Wading than of the Gallinaceous order; but 
with which-the present family will still be found to preserve its 
affinity by means of that circular disposition which has hitherto 
been seen to prevail throughout the divisions of ornithology. 
* Rostri (sc. Crypturi, Ill., Tinami, Lath.,) mira conformitas cum rostro Rhee est. 
Ilüger, Prod. p. 245. 
VOL. XIV. 3 R The 
