INTRODUCTION. 53 



under contribution for the luxury and refinement 

 of this partial territory, as the fowls, turkeys, 

 peacocks, and pintadoes, of the most ordinary 

 farm and poultry yards will at all times show. 

 Africa may be stated as next in scarcity, and her 

 arid plains are most suitable to the Struthionidce, 

 the noble ostrich, and numerous bustards, exhi- 

 biting- its rasorial character, accompanied by a 

 peculiar form of partridges, and the genus Pie- 

 redes, or sand-grouse, while the guinea fowls seem 

 to be the arboreal form, and frequent the lines of 

 wood and cover which fringe the borders of the 

 streams and rivers ; but in this remarkable country 

 we see every deficiency in this family of birds, as 

 a mean of sustenance, more than compensated by 

 the innumerable herds of ruminating quadrupeds, 

 particularly antelopes, which are followed after 

 and fed upon by the wandering hordes. It is 

 in Central Asia and North America, with the nor- 

 thern half of the Southern Continent, that we 

 find the great stronghold of the typical Rasores. 

 In the former, we have the stock of our domestic 

 poultry, the splendid pheasants and gorgeous pea- 

 cocks, all so successfully introduced to Europe, be- 

 sides bustards, numerous partridges, and pigeons, 

 and the cassowary, or the Asiatic representation of 

 the ostrich. To North America we are indebted 

 for the turkey, and it possesses many species of 

 grouse, in size, with a single exception, generally 

 exceeding those of Europe. In the Southern Con- 

 tinent we encounter the whole family of the CYa- 



