THE ALLIES OF THE PIGEON : AVES 



381 



usually brown or gray, with some white intermixed. During 

 the breeding-season many species give utterance to more or 

 less musical cries. At other seasons a number of species 

 have shrill call-notes or whistles. The eggs are usually laid 

 on the sand in a hollow scraped for the purpose. They are 

 very often protectively colored. Like the domestic fowl, the 

 young are able to take care of themselves from the very first. 

 Their nestling plumage is also protectively colored. 



One of the best known is the woodcock, which frequents 

 low, moist, wooded regions. The tip of the upper mandible 

 can be moved upward, so that it is of use in feeling for and 

 seizing worms in the ground. The Wilson's snipe of fresh- 

 water meadows and swamps, and the upland plover of higher 

 and drier pastures, are other familiar species. 



Grouse, Quail, Turkeys, Pheasants, and Allies. The galli- 

 naceous birds, G-alli'nce (Lat. gallina, hen), commonly known 

 as scratching birds, 

 have a stout, convex 

 beak fitted for seizing 

 and crushing seeds, 

 which form a large 

 part of their food ; the 

 wings are short and 

 rounded, and the short, 

 stout legs have strong 

 toes adapted to scratch- 

 ing. Nearly all species 

 are terrestrial in habit. 

 Here are included the 

 larger part of the game- 

 birds of the world. By far the best known of the group is 

 our domestic fowl, of many races, all of which are descended 

 from the red jungle-fowl (Gal'lus banki'vus, Figs. 198, 199) 

 of India, Sumatra, Celebes, and the Philippines. 



FIG. 198. Photograph of Jungle-Fowl 



