I 86 GALLIFORMES : MESITIDAE 



CHAP. 



The remaining genera are Xothocercus with five, Taoniscus ^yith 

 one, and Tinamotis with two species. 



Order IX. GALLIFORMES. 



The Galliformes, or Gallinaceous Birds, constitute a laro-e 

 and feirly homogeneous Order, situated between the Tiuami- 

 formes and the Gruiformes, if we assume the former to be classi- 

 fied in accordance with the views of Dr. Gadow, and noi to be 

 placed nearer to the Eatitae ; the Gruiformes again linking 

 themselves to the Laro-Limicoline section of the Charadriiformes, 

 and so forth. Opisthocomus, however, though decidedly Galline, 

 shows considerable resemblance to the Cuckoo-tribe.^ The present 

 Order may be divided into the Sub-Orders Mesitae, with the 

 Family Mesitidae ; TURXICES, with the Turnicidae or Button- 

 Quails, and the Pedionomidae ; Galli, with the Megapodiidae or 

 Mound-builders, the Cracidae or Curassows, and the Phasianidae |# 

 or Game-birds, Fowls, and the like ; and finally Opisthocomi, with 

 the Family Opisthocomidae, containing but one species, the excep- 

 tionally curious Hoatzin. Among the Gcdli, the Megopodiidae 

 and Cracidae together compose Professor Huxley's group of Peris- 

 teropodes or Pigeon-footed forms, where all the toes are in one plane; 

 the Phasianidae standing alone in his Alectoropodes, or Fowl- 

 footed division, where the hallux is elevated above its fellows. 



Excluding Jlesites, of which comparatively little is known, all 

 the members of the Order aijree in having a more or less cjlobular 

 crop, and a somewhat scanty supply of down in the adidts, with 

 a more uniform coatinsr in the vouno;, which becomes thinner in 

 Opistliocomus ; they may be distinguished from the Gruiformes, 

 except Bhinoclietus, by their impervious nostrils, while the 

 Tinamiformes differ in the compound structure of their bills, the 

 primitive sternum, aud the invariably weak rectrices. 



Sub-Order Mesitae. Fam. I. Mesitidae. This consists of 

 a single genus, Mcsites, from Madagascar, originally referred by 

 Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire to the neighbourhood of the Pigeons, 

 and by subsequent writers to that of the Passerine, Ardeine, or 

 Ealline birds." AV. A. Forbes ^ classed it next to Ev.rypijga and 



^ H. Gadow, Bronn's Thicr-Ilcich, Ares, Syst. Theil, 1893, p. 176. 



- A. Milne-Edwards, Ann. Sci. Xat. (6) Zool. vii. 1878, Art. 6. 



3 P.Z.S. 1882, pp. 267-271. 



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