4(3 



ORNITHOLOGY 



Pt TO- 



diilx. 



now relegate it to that Order. It is doubtless an extremely 

 generalized form, 1 the survival of a very ancient type, 

 whence several groups may havo sprung ; and, whenever 

 the secret it has to tell shall be revealed, a considerable 

 step in the phylogeny of Birds can scarcely fail to follow. 2 

 Allusion has also been made to the peculiarities of two 

 other forms placed with the last among the Alectorides — 

 Eurypyga and Rhinochetus — being each the sole type of a 

 separate Family. It seems that they might be brought 

 with the Gruidse, Psophiidse, and Aramidse into a group 

 or Suborder Grues, — which, with the Fulicarise 3 of Nitzsch 

 and Mr Sclater as another Suborder, would constitute an 

 Order that may continue to bear the old Linnsean name 

 Grallse. It must be borne in mind, however, that some 

 members of both these Suborders exhibit many points of 

 resemblance to certain other forms that it is at present 

 necessary to place in different groups — thus some Rallidse 

 to the Gallium, Grus to Otis, and so forth; and it is as 

 yet doubtful whether further investigation may not shew 

 the resemblance to be one of affinity, and therefore of 

 taxonomic value, instead of mere analogy, and therefore of 

 no worth in that respect. 



We have next to deal with a group nearly as com- 

 . plicated. The true Gallinse are indeed as well marked a 

 section as any to be found ; but round and near them cluster 

 si mie forms very troublesome to allocate. The strange 

 Hoactzin (Opisthocomus) is one of these, and what seems to 

 be in some degree its arrested development makes its posi- 

 tion almost unique, 4 — but enough has already been said of 

 it before (see vol. xii. p. 28, and supra p. 36). It must for the 

 pre i nt at least stand alone, the sole occupant of a single 

 Order. Then there are the Hemipodes or Button-Quails, 

 which have been raised to equal rank by Prof. Huxley as 

 Turnicomorphse ; but, though no doubt the osteological 

 differences between them and the normal Gallinse, pointed 

 i -nt by him as well as by Prof. Parker, are great, they do 

 not seem to be more essential than are found in different 

 members of some other Orders, nor to offer an insuperable 

 objection to their being classed under the designation 

 Gallinse. If this be so there will be no necessity for 

 removing them from that Order, which may then be 

 portioned into three Suborders — Hemipodii standing some- 

 what apart, arid Alectoropodes and Peristeropodes, which 

 are more nearly allied — the latter comprehending the 

 Megapodiidse and Cracidse, and the former consisting of 

 the normal Gallinee, of which it is difficult to justify the 

 recognition of more than a single Family, though in that 

 two types of structure are discernible. 



The Family of Sand-Grouse, Pteroclidse, is perhaps one 

 of the most instructive in the whole range of Ornithology. 

 In Prof. Huxley's words (Pwecdings, 1868, p. 303), they 

 are "completely intermediate between the Alectoromorphse 

 [i.e., Gallinse] and the Perish romorphse [the Pigeons]. 

 They cannot be included within either of these groups 

 without destroying its definition, while they are perfectly 

 definable themselves." Hence he would make them an 

 independent group of equal value with the other two. 

 Almost the same result has been reached by Dr Gadow 



1 Cariama is the oldest name for the genus, but being a word of 

 "barbarous" origin it was et aside by Illigerand the purists in favour 

 ,,| DicAolophiis, under which name it has been several times mentioned 

 in the foregoing pages. 



- A brief desciiption of the egg and young of Cariama cristt ita pro- 

 duced in the Jardin des Plantes at Pails is given in the Zoological 

 Society's Proceedings for 1SS1, p. 2. 



3 This group would contain three families -Rallidse, Ueliomithidse 



(the Finfoots of Africa ami South America), and the Mesit '■ ol 



Madagascar whose at lea I appi iximate place has been at last found 



bj M. A. Milne-Edwards (Ann. So. Naturelles, ser. 6. vii. 



No. 6). 



1 Mesites, just mentioned, presents a rase which may, however, be 

 very similar. 



{op. cit., 1882, pp. 331, 332). No doubt there are strong 

 and tempting reasons for taking this step ; but peradven- 

 ture the real lesson taught by this aggregation of common 

 characters is rather the retention of the union of the 

 Gallinse and Columbse into a single group, after the fashion 

 of by -gone years, under the name, however meaningless, 

 of Rasores. Failing that, the general resemblance of most 

 parts of the osteology of the Sand-Grouse to that of the 

 Pigeons, so well shewn by M. Milne-Edwards, combined 

 with their Pigeon-like pterylosis, inclines the present writer 

 to group them as a Suborder of Columbse ; but the many Columbse. 

 important points in which they differ from the more normal 

 Pigeons, especially in the matter of their young being 

 clothed with down, and their coloured and speckled eggs, 5 

 must be freely admitted. Young Sand-Grouse are described 

 as being not only "Dasyptedes" but even "Prascoces" at 

 birth, while of course every one knows the helpless condition 

 of "Pipers" — that is, Pigeons newly hatched from their 

 white eggs. Thus the opposite condition of the young of 

 these two admittedly very near groups inflicts a severe 

 blow on the so-called "physiological" method of dividing 

 Birds before mentioned, and renders the Pteroelidse so 

 instructive a form. The Columbse, considered in the wide 

 sense just suggested, would seem to have possessed another 

 and degenerate Suborder in the Dodo and its kindred, 

 though the extirpation of those strange and monstrous 

 forms will most likely leave their precise relations a matter 

 of some doubt ; while the third and last Suborder, the true 

 Columbse, is much more homogeneous, andean hardly bo 

 said to contain more than two Families, Columbidse and 

 Didunculidse — the latter consisting of a single species 

 peculiar to the Samoa Islands, and having no direct con- 

 nexion with the Dididse or Dodos, 6 though possibly it may 

 be found that the Papuan genus Otidip/taps presents a form 

 linking it with the Columbidse. 



The Gallinse would seem to hold a somewhat central Groups 

 position among existing members of the Carinate division, 7 allied to 

 whence many groups diverge, and one of them, the Opis- 

 thocomi or Heteromorphx of Prof. Huxley, indicates, as he 

 has hinted, the existence of an old line of descent, now 

 almost obliterated, in the direction of the Musophagidse, 

 and thence, we may not unreasonably infer, to the 

 ( 'occygomorphse of the same authority. But these 

 " Coccygomorphs " would also appear to reach a higher 

 rank than some other groups that we have to notice, and 

 therefore, leaving the former, we must attempt to trace 

 the fortunes of a more remote and less exalted line. It 

 has already been stated that the Gavise are a group closely 

 allied to though somewhat higher than the Limieolse, and 

 that at least two forms of what have here been called 

 Grallse present an affinity to the latter. One of them, 

 Rhinochetus, has been several times thought to be con- 

 nected through its presumed relative Eurypyga (from 

 which, however, it is a good way removed both as regards 

 distribution and structure) with the Heriodiones, Herons. 

 On the other hand the Gavise would seem to be in like 

 manner related through Phaethon (the Tropic-bird, q.v.) 

 with the Steganopodes or Dysporomorphse of Prof. Huxley, 

 among which it is usually placed, though according to 

 Prof. Mivaet (Trans. Zool. Society, x. pp. 364, 365) 

 wrongly. These supposed affinities lead us to two other 

 groups of Birds that have, it has been proved, some com- 

 mon characters ; and from one or the other (no one yet 

 can say which) the Accipitres would seem to branch off — 



5 This fact tells in favour of the views of Dr Gadow and those who 

 hold the Sand-Grouse to be allied to the. Plovers ; but then he places 

 the Pigeons between these groups, and their eggs tell as strongly the 

 other way. 



' ; Cf. Phil. Transactions, 1S67, p. 34ft. 



■ Cf. Prof. Parker's remarks in the Philosophical Transactions for 

 1869, p. 755. 



