28 



the Least Sandpiper, not larger than a Sparrow, to the Curlews 

 and Godwits, standing a foot to a foot and a half in height, with 

 bills six to eight inches in length (see Cases D, I, and N). Most 

 of the species breed in arctic and subarctic regions. 



The Stilts and Avocets are noteworthy for their long legs, long, 

 slender, and sometimes upward curved bills, and black and white 

 colors. They number but few species, and are mainly restricted 

 to warm temperate and tropical or subtropical countries. The 

 Palaropes form a group of three species, all represented in North 

 America ; they are graceful swimmers, and being found often far 

 out at sea, swimming in flocks, have been fantastically called 

 "Sea Geese," although scarcely larger than the smaller Sand- 

 pipers, which in general form they much resemble (see Case D). 

 The Thick-knees, or Stone-Plovers, are more Plover-like in form, 

 are subtropical in distribution, and number only a few species. 

 The Bustards are strictly Old World and semitropical in distribu- 

 tion ; the greater part of the thirty-five species occur in Africa, 

 and range in size from birds the size of a Grouse to that of a 

 Turkey. They present many interesting characters, and resemble 

 Grouse quite as much as Plovers. (See Cases N and O.) 



Order XIV, Opisf/iocomi, consists of a single species, inhabiting 

 South America, known as the Hoatzin {Opisthocomus cristatus), 

 whose conflicting relationships have long been a puzzle to natural- 

 ists. Examination of its anatomy, however, has so settled its 

 affinities that it now stands as an order near the gallinaceous 

 birds — "sole relict of an ancestral type." (See Case I.) 



Order XV, Galliine (Fowls or Gallinaceous Birds), includes 

 four families and some three hundred and fifty species. Among 

 them are not only our domestic fowls (Turkeys, Pea-fowls, Guinea- 

 fowls, and other " poultry"), but the Pheasants, Quails, Partridges, 

 Grouse, Megapodes, Curassows, and Guans. These groups are 

 divisible into two well-marked suborders, the first consisting of 

 the Pheasants, Fowls, Grouse, and their allies {Galli/irc alectero- 

 podes, or Fowl-footed Ga/liinc), and the other of the Megapodes, 

 Curassows, and Guans {GaHincE peristeropodes, or Pigeon-footed 

 Gallince). 



