186 GALLIFORMES: MESITIDAE “CHAP. 
The remaining genera are Nothocercus with five, Zaoniscus with 
one, and 7inamotis with two species. 
Order IX. GALLIFORMES. 
The Galliformes, or Gallinaceous Birds, constitute a large 
and fairly homogeneous Order, situated between the Tinami- 
formes and the Gruiformes, if we assume the former to be classi- 
fied in accordance with the views of Dr. Gadow, and not to be 
placed nearer to the Ratitae; the Gruiformes again lnking 
themselves to the Laro-Limicoline section of the Charadriiformes, 
and so forth. Opisthocomus, however, though decidedly Galle, 
shows considerable resemblance to the Cuckoo-tribe." The present 
Order may be divided into the Sub-Orders MEsITaxg, with the 
Family Mesitidae ; TurNIcES, with the Zurnicidae or Button- 
Quails, and the Pedionomidae ; GALLI, with the MWegapodiidae or 
Mound-builders, the Cracidae or Curassows, and the Phasianidae 
or Game-birds, Fowls, and the like; and finally OpIstHocoMI, with 
the Family Opisthocomidae, containing but one species, the excep- 
tionally curious Hoatzin. Among the (Galli, the Megapodiidae 
and Cracidae together compose Professor Huxley’s group of Peris- 
teropodes or Pigeon-footed forms, where all the toes are in one plane: 
the Phasianidae standing alone in his Alectoropodes, or Fowl- 
footed division, where the hallux is elevated above its fellows. 
Excluding Ifesites, of which comparatively little is known, all 
the members of the Order agree in having a more or less globular 
crop, and a somewhat scanty supply of down in the adults, with 
a more uniform coating in the young, which becomes thinner in 
Opisthocomus ; they may be distinguished from the Grwiformes, 
except LRhinochetus, by their impervious nostrils, while the 
Tinamiformes differ in the compound structure of their bills, the 
primitive sternum, and the invariably weak rectrices. 
Sub-Order Mesiraz. Fam. I. Mesitidae——This consists of 
a single genus, Mesites, from Madagascar, originally referred by 
Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire to the neighbourhood of the Pigeons, 
and by subsequent writers to that of the Passerine, Ardeine, or 
Ralline birds.” W. A. Forbes® classed it next to Hurypyga and 
1 H. Gadow, Bronn’s Thier-Reich, Aves, Syst. Theil, 1893, p. 176. 
2 A. Milne-Edwards, Ann. Sci. Nat. (6) Zool. vii. 1878, Art. 6. 
3 P.Z.S. 1882, pp. 267-271. 
