vi] DISTRIBUTION OF SELECTED GROUPS 109 



into what they are. It was a great mistake to use 

 these recent rails, simply because they were flightless, 

 as a support of the former existence of the great 

 southern continent. On Tristan da Cunha, in the 

 middle of the South Atlantic, lives the tiny flightless 

 Gallimda nesiotis. 



Cranes are an Old World group, most numerous 

 in Africa, less numerous in Eurasia ; only one kind 

 of crane lives in Western North America and one in 

 Australasia. Cranes are absent from New Zealand, 

 the Malay Islands, Madagascar, Central and South 

 America. This is very remarkable considering 

 that these birds are some of the best-flying mi- 

 grants. 



Other genera, combining specialised with ancient 

 characters, have very isolated ranges, an indication of 

 the great age of the whole group. For instance, the 

 Cariama and Chuna in South America ; also Psophia, 

 the Trumpeter, to which is undoubtedly related the 

 Miocene Patagonian Phororhacus with its gigantic, 

 monstrous skull. Rhinochetus, the Kagu, is restricted 

 to New Caledonia. Eurypyga, the Sunbittern, in 

 tropical America, together with Heliornis, the Fin- 

 foot, which is scarcely generically distinct from Podica 

 in Africa and further India. 



Bustards are really rails adapted to life on grassy 

 plains. They form an absolutely Old World family, 

 inhabiting Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, but 



