IGG THE NATURAL niSTORY RETIEAV, 



the most barbarous Latiu. Of the Phapida3 or Grround-pigeons we 

 find only a single species in Dr. Jerdon's work — the ChalcopJiaps 

 indica — hardly separable from its nearly allied forms of the great 

 Eastern Islands and Australia. 



The Grallinaceous order, which succeeds to the Pigeons, contains, 

 as is well known, some of the largest and finest forms of the whole 

 class of birds, and is that from which nearly all our domesticated 

 fowls have been derived. In India we meet with the head-quarters 

 of this group. "We find the Jungle-fowls and Pea-fowls still in- 

 habiting the woods, whence the parents of the present inhabitants of 

 our poultry-yards were derived ages ago — ^besides numerous other 

 game-birds of kindred nature well known to the sportsman of the 

 East. Dr. Jerdon rightly begins his order Easores with the Sand- 

 grouse, Pteroclidae, w^hich, as betrayed by their ordinary name of 

 Bock-pigeons, show in some points evident traces of an alliance with 

 the Columb^e. Of this beautiful group, which is essentially African 

 in its origin, not extending further eastward into Southern Asia than 

 the plains of India, there are four Indian species. Next to the Sand- 

 grouse, Dr. Jerdon places his family JPliasianidce, which, as here 

 restricted, comprises the Pea-fowls, Pheasants, Jungle-fowls and 

 Spurfowls, and forms a group particularly characteristic of the Indian 

 region. Eourteen species of this family are contained in Dr. Jerdon's 

 work, and amongst them, the splendid Monaul, or Impeyan Pheasant, 

 the Tragopans, the Pukras, the Cheer, and the two Kaleeges, the 

 magnificent game-birds of the favoured sportsmen of the Himalayas. 

 The next familyj the Tetraonidse, likewise contains several species of 

 not less interest to the large class of Indian sportsmen. At the head 

 of Dr. Jerdon's list of this family stands the Jer-moonal or G^reat 

 Snow-partridge, which inhabits the higher parts of the Himalayas, in 

 the vicinity of perpetual snow. Those who penetrate into Ladak 

 will, if fortunate, meet with a second species of this fine genus, the 

 Tetraogallus Tibetanus of Gould, which, although mentioned by 

 Dr. Jerdon, hardly comes within the scope of his work. Several 

 genera of true partridges have representatives scattered over diff'erent 

 parts of India, amongst which we may particularly note the Franco- 

 lin, formerly abundant in Southern Europe, but now, as shown by 

 Lord Lilford,* apparently extinct within the limits of our continent. 

 Dr. Jerdon's account of this family as well as of the rest of the 



* Ibis, 1862, p. 352. 



