Vni INTRODUCTION. 



besides a few of a more doubtful character ; three are now described 

 for the first time. 



In the Classification of the Anseres, I have closely followed 

 that proposed by Sclater and Salvin in 1876 (1. c), and by Sclater 

 in 1880, the only new feature in my arrangement being the institu- 

 tion of a new subfamily, Chenonettince, the members of which have 

 the external appearance of Geese, but the males have a larynx 

 furnished with a bulla ossea, as in Anatince. 



Not much has hitherto been done in the systematic and descrip- 

 tive treatment of the order Crypturi. 



Wagier published in 1827, with excellent latin descriptions. 

 Monographs of the genera Crypturus, Notlmra, and Ehynchotus, 

 containing all the species then known. 



Gray, in 18G7, in the ' List of the Gallinae in the British Museum,' 

 gave an account, with descriptions of many new species, of the 

 whole group, numbering about 55 species. A nominal list of the 

 same appears in the ' Hand-list' (1871). 



PinaUy Schlegel, in the ' Museum des Paj^s-Bas,' published in 1880 

 a Monograph of the ' Tinami,' pp. 1-57 ; the species mentioned by 

 him number 33, represented by 134 specimens. 



The species recognized in the present volume amount to 65, of 

 which 14 are described as new. 



In working out the Tinamous I have received much assistance 

 from Messrs. Salvin and Sclater ; the latter has put at my disposal 

 notes which he had prepared some time ago with the intention of 

 bringing out, in conjunction with Mr. Salvin, a Monograph of the 

 group. 



The taxonomic characters of the Eatito' have been much less 

 studied than their morphology. 



Prince Bonaparte, in the ' Comptes Rendua ' (xliii. p. 841, 1856), 

 gave a nominal ' Conspectus ' of the Struthious birds, with some 

 scattered notes ; but to Mr. Sclater we owe the first complete account 

 of them. In 1860 he read before the Zoological Society a paper 

 "On the Struthious Birds living in the Society's Menagerie," which 

 was published in 1862, in the 'Transactions of the Zoological 

 Society of London,' vol. iv. pp. 353-364, pis. Ixvii.a-lxxvi. 



Schlegel, in 1873, puWished in the ' Museum des Pavs-Bas " a 



