that connect the Orders and Families of. Dirds. 487 
newly discovered in some islands of the Eastern Archipelago, the 
Megapodius of M. Temminck, serves strongly to illustrate these 
principles, and to corroborate my opinion as to the situation of 
the singular New Holland genus before us. The Megapodius, 
brought home to France by one of her late expeditions, is con- 
fessedly gallinaceous in its habits, and as such has been placed 
without hesitation among the true Rasores; and yet its foot is 
precisely of the same construction * as that of Menura. ‘The bill 
also shows no very material difference from those of the extreme 
groups of the Cracide. To return, however, to the general aft- 
nities of the family, it may again be repeated, that all the latter 
genera, thus united among themselves, evince an evident ap- 
proach to the Columbide, from which, it may be remembered, 
. we commenced our observations on the order. The whole of the 
groups of the Rasores, thus following each other in continued 
affinity, preserve their circular succession without interruption. 
Ord. IV. GRALLATORES. ^ 
'The birds of the next succeeding order, another of the aber- 
rant groups of the class, exhibit an equally circumscribed sphere - 
of action as those of the order we have just quitted. Holding 
an intermediate station between the Gallinaceous birds, which 
we have observed to be confined to the land, and the Natatorial 
groups, which are confined to the water, their typical groups 
# « Tous les doigts (sont) longs, le posterieur posant à terre dans toute sa longueur." 
Temm. Art. M. Freycineti. Pl. Col. 220.—The habit of these birds of leaving their 
eggs on the ground and deserting them, unlike the typical groups of the order, affords 
an additional reason for placing them in an extreme division. In this respect they 
evince an affinity to some of the Struthionide, another aberrant group. See Temm. 
ubi sup., and Cuv. Regne Anim. i. p. 461. 
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