. 



INTRODUCTION. xxi 



are the most widely distributed of the Columbiformes, an order which is singularly 

 remarkable for the localness of its genera. 



Following the Pigeons we have now to glance at the distribution of the Pedio- 

 phili or Sand-Grouse. This very small and very distinct order is exclusively con- 

 fined to the Old World, becoming most abundantly represented in the arid desert 

 districts of the Ethiopian region and in similar areas in the central Palasarctic region. 

 They are most sparsely represented in the Oriental region and in South Europe. 

 Next in the order of our sequence come the Galliformes or Game Birds. There 

 is perhaps no other group of birds more thoroughly cosmopolitan in their distri- 

 bution, being represented amidst the snows and the ice of the Arctic regions 

 upon the lofty mountains, in the woodlands and plains and valleys of temperate 

 latitudes, to the jungles and forests of the Tropic zone, and southwards beyond to 

 Temperate regions again. The Game Birds are divisible into several well-defined 

 families, which to a great extent are geographical. Thus the Grouse are confined 

 to the Northern hemisphere, the Partridges and Quails together are separable 

 into groups which are both of them representative of the New World and the 

 Old World respectively, the Pheasants are chiefly Asiatic, the Turkeys are as 

 exclusively American as the Guinea Fowls are African, the Hemipodes are confined 

 to the Eastern hemisphere, the Megapodes are almost exclusively peculiar to the 

 Australian region, 1 and, lastly, the Guans and Curassows are indigenous to the 

 American continents. 



Another cosmopolitan group is the Ralliformes or Rails, universally distri- 

 buted with the exception of the Polar regions, and some of the species remarkable 

 for their enormous areas of dispersal. Here again we have a group singularly 

 rich in island species, some of them having entirely lost the power of flight. 

 It is a most significant fact that some of the genera or families are indigenous to 

 the tropic zone right round the world a phenomenon of distribution that is 

 utterly opposed to any theory of Polar dispersal. Following these in the arrange- 

 ment adopted in the present volume we have the Gruiformes, or Cranes and allied 

 birds. The various families that form this somewhat heterogenous group are to 

 a great extent geographical. The true Cranes are by far the most cosmopolitan, 

 and, with the exception of the Neotropical region, are found distributed over all 

 the great laud masses of the globe. On the other hand, the Guaraiinas (Ararnidae) 

 and the Trumpeters (Psophiidae) are exclusively Neotropical, whilst the Kagu 

 (Khinochetidae), the most local of all, is confined to the island of New Caledonia. 



Our next order is the Charadriiformes, which includes all the remaining 

 land birds dealt with in the following pages. This order we have divided 

 into nine fairly well-defined families, four (which has inadvertently been 

 given as five on page 98) of which are represented in the British Islands. 



1 In the account of the Order Galliformes (p. 30) the statement that Game Birds are cosmopolitan with 

 the exception of the Australian region is somewhat ambiguous. It should there have been 

 explained that the Order is represented by the Megapodes only. 



