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230 GALLINE, GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 
Galline, resembling the sand-grouse and tinamous in some respects, and related to 
the plovers in others. A singular circumstance is a lack of the extensive vertebral 
anchyloses usual in birds, all the vertebrae remaining distinct (Parker). The crop 
is said to be wanting in some, as is also the hind toe. There are some twenty 
current species of the principal genus, Turniz, to which Gray adds the African 
Ortyxelos meiffrenii, and the Australian Pedionomus torquatus; the latter is placed, 
by some, with the Gralle. 
4. The sand-grouse, Pferoclide, inosculate with the pigeons, as the Turnicide 
do with the plovers. The digestive system is fowl-like; the sternum in Pterocles 
departs from the rasorial type to approach the columbine, the modification being 
even more marked than in the next family; the pterylosis is pigeon-like, lacking 
aftershafts (Hualey), or having small ones (NVitzsch). The wings are very long and 
pointed, the feet short, with reduced hallux, and variable feathering. Confined to 
Europe, Asia and Africa: the principal genus, Pterocles, has about a dozen species ; 
the only other, Syrrhaptes, has two. 
5. The mound-birds, Megapodide, as the name implies, have large feet, with 
little curved claws, and lengthened insistent hallux. They share this last feature 
with the Cracide (beyond) ; and the osseous structure of these two families, except 
as regards pneumaticity, is strikingly similar. Both show a modification of the 
sternum, the inner one of the two notches being less instead of more than half as 
deep as the sternum is long, as in typical Gallinw. Confined to Australia and the 
East Indies; Megapodius is the principal genus, of a dozen or more species; there 
are three others, each of a species or two. : 
6. The guinea-fowl, Numidide, of which a species, Nuwmida meléeagris, is com- 
monly seen in domestication, are an African and Madagascan type. While the 
foregoing families are strongly specialized, this one, like the turkey family, more 
closely approaches the true fowl, and both may be only subfamilies of Phasianide. 
The bones of the pinion have a certain peculiarity ; the frontal generally develops 
a protuberance ; there are wattles, but no spurs; the tail is very short; the head 
naked. There are six or eight species of Nwmida, in some of which the trachea is 
convoluted'in an appendage to the furcula; Acryllium vulturina, Agelastes melea- 
grides and Phasidus niger, are the remaining ones. 
7. Finally, we reach the Phasianide, or pheasants, a magnificent family of 
typical Galline, of which the domestic fowl is a characteristic example. These 
birds do not show any of the foregoing special characters; the feet, nasal fosse, 
and usually a part, if not the whole, of the head, are naked; the tarsi commonly 
develop spurs; the hallux is elevated; the tail, with or without its coverts, some- 
times has an extraordinary development or a remarkable shape. There are fifty or 
sixty species, distributed in numerous modern genera, about twelve of which are 
well marked; they are all indigenous to Asia and neighboring islands, focussing in 
India. In the peacock, Pavo cristatus, the tail coverts form a superb train, capable 
of erection into a disk, the most gorgeous object in ornithology ; in an allied genus, 
Polyplectron, there are a pair of spurs on each leg. The argus pheasant, Argqusanus 
giganteus, is distinguished by the enormous development of the secondary quills, as 
well as by the length of the tail feathers and peculiarity of the middle pair. The 
combed, wattled and spurred barn-yard fowl, with folded tail and flowing middle 
feathers, are descendants of Gallus bankiva, type of a small genus. The trago- 
pans, Cereornis, are an allied form with few species; the macartneys, Ewplocomus, 
with a dozen species, are another near form, as are the impeyans, Lophophorus, 
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