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I. RASORES. SCRAPERS. 



OR GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 



The extensive order of the Rasores, or Gallinaceous Birds, 

 is composed of species whose direct utility to man is more ob- 

 vious than that of any other group, the flesh of all of them af- 

 fording a much esteemed and wholesome food, for which reason 

 several of the larger kinds have been reduced to a state of do- 

 mesticity, in which they are found to be highly profitable. In 

 this respect, as well as in the nature of their food, and there- 

 fore also in the structure of their digestive organs, they bear 

 an obvious analogy to the Ruminating Quadrupeds, as the 

 Bull, the Ram, and the Goat. To this important series belong 

 the Turkey, the Peacock, the Common Fowl, the Pheasants, 

 and the numerous species of Grouse and Partridge, which, al- 

 though not capable of being collectively defined by characters 

 derived from the exterior, are yet clearly separated from all 

 other birds by the peculiar form of their intestinal canal. The 

 Pigeons, which by many ornithologists have been referred to 

 this order, I consider as constituting a family, nearly allied in 

 some respects, but in others so difl^erent that several authors 

 have associated them with the " Insessores " or " Passeres.'"' 

 The Ostrich, Cassowary, and Bustard, are, in my opinion, so 

 unlike the true Rasores, that they could be ranked with them 

 only by persons whose preconceived theoretical arrangements 

 rendered such an association necessary. 



Taking a general view of the diiferent species, and disposing 

 them into genera and families, we should find the following 



