136 GAME-BIRDS OF INDIA 



Order GRAIX^. 



Suborder— OTIDES. 



The Bustards form a suborder of birds connected with, yet 

 distinctly separated from, many others. In general superficial 

 appearance they are, perhaps, most like the gallinaceous birds, 

 especially in regard to their heads and wings. They are, however, 

 more closely allied in anatomy and other ways to many other 

 families, such as the rails, cranes, plovers and, in the New World, 

 the tinamus. 



They are schizognathous and holorhinal, the cervical vertebrae 

 are either sixteen or seventeen in number and the sternum has two 

 small notches on each side of the posterior border. There is no 

 hallux or hind-toe, and the two deep flexor tendons unite and again 

 divide into three. 



They possess ambiens, accessory femoro-caudal, semi-tendinosus 

 and accessory semi-tendinosus muscles, but the femoro-caudal is 

 absent. 



There is no oil-gland and the caeca are long. 



The contour feathers possess an after-shaft and there is no lateral 

 bare tract on the side of the neck. 



