204 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
the peculiar birds called tinamous ; and the second— 
that is, the rails (4-8)—runs through the nocturnal 
swamp-haunting habits of the Apterya, already noted 
under Chapters X XII and X XIII. 
Onward the fowl forms, including chickens, tur- 
keys, guineas, peafowls, pheasants, grouses, par- 
tridges, quails, curassows, brush turkeys, etc., have 
three strains of kinship going out of them. The first 
and closest is that toward the pigeon forms, there 
being two birds which are nearly as much one as the 
other. In fact, the sand grouse lies as a three-way 
connecting link between these two groups and the 
plover forms (6—9 and 5-9). Beyond this the pigeons 
have no well-marked kinship. They are the tip of 
their twig. 
There is also a more direct tie line (5-9) between 
fowl forms and plovers. The button quails of the 
former group form an immediate connecting link. 
The third strain from the fowls runs to the rail 
forms wa that remarkable bird the hoactzin (5-7-8), 
since it is thought to stand between the curassows 
and the gallinules. From the hoactzin runs a faint 
line down to the cuckoos. | 
Besides the lines 8-4 and 8-7 the rail forms have 
three other very marked ties. The jacanas are a con- 
necting link between these and the plovers (8-9), and 
the courlan or “crying bird ” between them and the 
cranes (8-10). Toward the grebes there is also a 
strong tie out through the aquatic gallinules (still in 
the Rail group) and w/a some very peculiar forms 
known as finfoots and sun-grebes (8-12). 
