CARINAT^. 263 



Quails {Turnicidm) ; the Mound-birds {Megapodidm) ; the 

 Curassows {Cracidce) ; and the Tinamous {Tinamidce). In 

 the latter are comprised the Pigeons {Columbidm), the 

 Ground-Pigeons (Gouridce), the Tree-Pigeons (Treronidai), the 

 Didunculidce, and the curious extinct family of the Dididce. 



As regards their distribution in time, the earliest known 

 traces of the Basores are found in the Eocene Tertiary. In 

 beds of this age in France occurs the Gallinaceous genus 

 Falccortyx, apparently allied to the existing Quails in some 

 respects, but very different in others. 



In the Miocene period occur the remains of both Galli- 

 naceous and Columbaceous birds, one of the most noticeable 

 of the former being a Turkey {Meleagris antiquus) from the 

 Miocene of Colorado. The European Miocene contains re- 

 mains of Pheasants (FJiasianus), Partridges {Pcdccoperdix), 

 Sand-grouse, and Pigeons. The later Tertiary and Post- 

 Tertiary deposits have also yielded the bones of various 

 Easorial birds, the genus Gallus appearing for the first time 

 in the Pliocene. The most interesting, however, of the 

 extinct PMsores are the Dodo and the Solitau^e, both of which 

 have been exterminated within the historical period. Of these 

 two singular birds, the Dodo {Didus incptus) formerly in- 

 habited the island of Mauritius in great numbers, but the 

 last record of its occurrence dates from the year 1681. It 

 was a large and heavy bird (fig. 589), bigger than a swan, 

 and entirely unlike the Pigeons in general appearance. The 

 wings were rudimentary and completely useless as organs of 

 flight. The legs were short and stout, the feet had four toes 

 each, and the tail was extremely short, carrying, as well as 

 the wings, a tuft of soft plumes. The beak (unlike that of 

 any of the Columhacei except the little Didunctdus strigi- 

 rostris) was strongly arched towards the end, and the upper 

 mandible had a strongly-hooked apex, not at all unlike that 

 of a bird of prey. The frontal region of the skull was 

 greatly elevated and tumid, from the excessive development 

 of cellular cavities between the two tables of the skull, and 

 the actual brain-case was very smaU in proportion to the 

 size of the cranium. 



In many respects allied to the Dodo, and, like it, incapable 



