June 20,, 1875] 



NATURE 



149 



is,however, in favour of their more intimate reptilian affini- 

 ties. They are characterised externally by their covering of 

 feathers, and by the fore limbs being developed to form 

 wings. These wings, though primarily constructed for 

 flight, in some birds perforiji other functions. In the 

 Penguins they are employed for swimming, in the Ostrich 

 to assist in running, whilst in the Apteryx and the Casso- 

 wary their condition is so rudimentary that they can be 

 of no service to their owners. In the Night Parrot and 

 the Weka Rails the wings are very much diminished. 



Birds are divided into from seventeen to twenty well- 

 marked groups, of which the Gallinas, the order which 

 contains the Pheasants, forms one which is more im- 

 portant in an economical point of view than any of the 

 others, as it contains most of the domesticated species of 

 birds, the ducks and pigeons being exceptions. The Game 

 Birds, as the Gallinse are commonly termed, may be divided 

 into the following seven sections : — i. The Pteroclida, 

 or Sand Grouse, birds which inhabit Africa and Western 

 Asia, By some naturalists they are grouped with the 

 Pigeons ; they, however, differ from them and agree with 

 the fowls in laying coloured eggs, at the same time that 

 the young ones run about directly they are hatched. 

 There is one species, found in the steppes of Tartary, in 

 which, unlike its allies, the hind toe is absent. In the 

 year 1863 a flock of Sand Grouse spread over all Western 

 Europe. Prof Newton tell us, in the " Ibis," that not less 

 than seven hundred individuals must have appeared. A 

 few stragglers were seen for a short time afterwards. 

 2. The Meleagridce, or Turkeys, are unfortunately so 

 called, as they are in their wild state confined to Northern 

 and Central America. Only three wild species are known, 

 the most northern of which is said to be the parent stock 

 of our domesticated form, although some of the evidence 

 is in favour of the latter having sprung from the Mexican 

 species. The Ocellated Turkey, from Honduras, is 

 a particularly handsome bird. 3. The Numididce, or 

 Guinea Fowl, are represented in Guinea by one spe- 

 cies. The four or five others are all confined to 

 Africa ; of these, the elegant Vulturine Guinea Fowl, 

 of which several specimens have been presented to 

 the Zoological Gardens by Dr. Kirk, comes from 

 Zanzibar. 4. The Cracida, or Curassows, are the repre- 

 sentatives of the Game Birds in Central and South 

 America. They will not nest in captivity here, perhaps 

 because, as they are arboreal in their habits, it is not 

 possible to give them suitable abodes. They are said to 

 have been first introduced into Europe by the Dutch, 

 from the island of Curassovv, in the West Indies. In 

 some species the cock and hen are identical in plumage ; 

 in others very dissimilar. 5. The Megapodida:, or Mega- 

 podes, are confined almost entirely to the AustraHan 

 region. They are nearly allied to the Cracidaa. Their 

 eggs are laid in the middle of a mound composed of 

 earth and grass, where they are left to be hatched. Many 

 eggs are laid, and the young ones are able to fly within 

 twenty-four hours of leaving the egg. Their breeding 

 habits have been well described by Mr. Bartlett, from 

 examples which have laid in the Society's Gardens. By 

 one species the mound constructed is as much as 15 ft. 

 high and 60 ft. in circumference. The habits of one 

 peculiar species, the Maleo of Northern Celebes, have 

 been well described by Mr. Wallace. 6. The Turnicidce, 

 or Hcmipodes, much resemble quails. They are mostly 

 African, one species occurring in Andalusia, Their 

 anatomy is somewhat peculiar, 7. The Phasianidce, or 

 Pheasants, are constituted by {d) iYitTeiraotizdce, or Grouse, 

 inhabitants of the mountainous regions of Europe and 

 Northern Asia. In all the species the legs, and in some 

 the toes, are feathered. They do badly in captivity. The 

 best known of them are the Prairie Fowl, Capercailzie, 

 Black-cock, and Ptarmigan, {b) The Pcrdicidce, or 

 Partridges, are found in every part of the Old World. 

 The Snow Pheasant of the Himalayas is one of the 



largest species. The Impeyan Pheasant, from the 

 same locality, is a closely allied form. These birds are 

 represented in America by {c) the OdontophoridcB, or 

 Colins, sometimes called toothed Partridges, because the 

 bill is slightly toothed. They are much more arboreal 

 than their Old World representatives, and none of them 

 attain a great size, {d) The Phasia7iidcE, or Pheasants 

 proper, form about forty species, arranged in seven genera. 

 The story runs that the common Pheasant was first 

 brought from Colchis by the Argonaut, whence its scien- 

 tific name, P. colchicns. The genera include the Crosso- 

 ptilojis, or Eared Pheasants of Northern Asia, of which 

 there are four species : the true Pheasant, preserved in 

 this country ; the Thamnalea, or Gold Pheasant, with its 

 superb ally, the Amherst Pheasant of Central Asia, first 

 made known from a specimen brought over by the Lady 

 Amherst when returning from an embassy to the King of 

 Ava, Further facts respecting its distribution have been 

 obtained by Dr, John Anderson and Mr. Stone. The 

 Euplocami, or Kaleeges, are represented by twelve 

 species. They are intermediate between the Pheasants 

 and the Fowls. A new species has been quite recently 

 obtained by Mr. Gould from the interior of Borneo 

 {Lobiophasis). Gallus is the name given to the genus 

 which includes the Fowls, of which there are four species. 

 The Jungle Cock of India is the wild ancestor of the 

 domesticated bird ; others are inhabitants of Ceylon and 

 Java. Ceriornis includes the Tragopans, which are 

 peculiar in having homed appendages to the head. 

 There are five species in this beautiful group, ie) The 

 Pavonidce, or Peafowls, are natives of the forest jungles 

 of India, and such being the case it is strange that they 

 so well resist the winters of our own country. Poly- 

 pleciron, or the Peacock Pheasant, is an allied form ; it is 

 aberrant, however, in that it is monogamous and lays 

 only two eggs. The Argus Pheasant also belongs to the 

 same family. 



THE PROGRESS OF THE TELEGRAPH * 

 VIII. 



MORE daring inventors, as we have seen, entered the 

 field — Nott and Gamble, with a letter- showing tele- 

 graph ; Edward and Henry Highton, who produced an array 

 of signal apparatus, in some cases evading the Cooke and 

 Wheatstone patents by the use of nickel for the electro- 

 magnet in place of soft iron. But formidable beyond all 

 other competitors was the talented Alexander Bain, the 

 Edinburgh watchmaker, who has contributed largely 

 to the improvement of the telegraph by his singularly 

 beautiful adaptations and chemical printing arrange- 

 ments. Expensive litigation speedily followed, and the 

 directors in most cases compounded with their opponents. 

 Alexander Bain was made a director of the Company, 

 and at the same time received 12,000/. for his chemical 

 printer, and most of the other opposing patents became 

 the property of the Company by special arrangements 

 with the inventors. By means such as these a monopoly 

 for a time was secured, even though it was purchased at 

 an exorbitant price. Monopoly at that time represented 

 commercial gain, and every aspiring inventor was sooner 

 or later run off his feet by the powerful and wealthy cor- 

 poration. Such is the early history of the introduction 

 and opening of the Electric Telegraph as a means of the 

 transmission of inland intelligence. The telegraphic con- 

 nection of Great Britain with the Continent of Europe at 

 this time was scarcely developed, the extent of electrical 

 communication by the continental land lines being cir- 

 cumscribed. 



This, however, thanks to further applications of 

 science, is no longer the case. The planet is now girt 

 by telegraphs. First, there is the " Great Northern," 



* ConAued from p, 113. 



