I/O NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



were the material for such a task available, to describe and inter- 

 compare this great group of birds of nearly 500 specific forms. 



The best I can hope to accomplish is to review my early and more 

 or less imperfect and unsatisfactory papers, bring them up to date 

 through the examination of additional material, and contrast the 

 whole with our present knowledge of this subject, as reflected in 

 the substantial labors of other authors in various parts of the world. 



Judging from what I have already set forth then, it may be said 

 that game birds of one genus or another are found in nearly all 

 parts of the world, and when definitely restricted, as above indi- 

 cated, morphologists frequently refer to the entire group as the 

 " fowls," for structurally they are all more or less after the order 

 of the domesticated cock and hen, or more strictly speaking, the 

 wild jungle fowl of India, the well known Gallus bankiva. 



These birds are represented in the avifauna of the United States 

 by three of the above named families, that is, the Tetraonidae, the 

 Phasianidae, and the Cracidae, and they all fall strictly within the 

 suborder Gallinae. Our " quails " or quaillike partridges constitute 

 the subfamily Perdicinae. There are four genera of them, viz, 

 Colinus with two species and two subspieces ; Oreortyx, with one 

 species and two subspecies ; Callipepla, with one species and a sub- 

 species ; Lophortyx, with two species and a subspecies and finally, 

 Cyrtonyx, containing the single subspecies, the^ beautiful Mearn's 

 partridge, Cyrtonyx m. mearnsi. Next we have the sub- 

 family Tetraoninae, our true grouse, containing six well defined 

 genera, Dendragapus, Canachites, Bonasa, Lagopus, Tympanuchus, 

 Pediocaetes, all represented by several fine species and subspecies 

 each, and lastly Centrocercus created to contain the remarkable 

 form, Centrocercus urophasianus, the Sage grouse 

 of the western plains. Four forms of wild turkey constitute our 

 family Phasianidae ; and the Cracidae are represented by the genus 

 Ortalis, with the single subspecies Ortalis vet u la mac- 

 call i , the Chachalaca of the Rio Grande valley. This family is 

 quite distinct from the others enumerated, but hardly any more so, 

 however, than the turkey is from one of our partridges. Many 

 systematists regard the genus Ortalis as belonging to a subfamily 

 Penelopinae (the guans) of the family Cracidae (containing the 

 curassows and guans), and place it in a separate suborder Penelopes 

 (curassows and guans). 



Osteologically, probably the Gallinae are better known than any 

 other group of birds, a fact principally due to the skeleton of the 



