483 Mr. N. A. Vigors 07i the Natural Affinities 



the family we have just quitted, with the exception of its being 

 articulated higher on the tarsus. The genus Lop/iophorus 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 tarsus. 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 Tetraonida are chiefly distinguished in 

 modern systems from those of the Phasianidce 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 Tetraonidce 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 Phasianidce, where 

 the hind toe, although articulated high on the tarsus, is yet 

 comparatively strong, and the Struthionidce, where it is gene- 

 rally, if not always, deficient. The groups that compose the 

 Tetraonidce, corresponding with those which form the genus Te- 

 trao of Linnaeus, seem to be immediately united to the prece- 

 ding family by means of the genus Cryptonyx, Temm., which 

 .' resembles 



