Order XVI. GRALL^E. 



In certain respects this order, consisting of the Bails, 

 Fiufeet, Cranes, Bustards, and some other families of scbizo- 

 gijathous birds, resembles the desmognathous Anisodactyli. Modern 

 ornithologists differ greatly as to the affinities of these groups 

 to each other and to birds belonging to other orders. By 

 some writers the JRallidce and the Heliornithidce are placed in an 

 ordinal group by themselves *, by others the Kails and Cranes 

 with some other families are associated together and the Bustards 

 transferred to the neighbourhood of the Plovers t. As in the case 

 of the Anisodactyli, so in the present instance I adopt Gadow's 

 classification J partly in order to avoid increasing the number of 

 ordinal groups, for if the Rails are made an order distinct from the 

 Cranes, the Bustards, and probably the Finfeet, would have equal 

 claims to ordinal distinction. In using for the present order the 

 Linnean term Grallse, the example set by Newton is followed, but 

 he omitted the Bustards. 



In the Grallae the hind toe when present is slightly raised, the 

 legs are generally long, and part of the tibia is bare. All are 

 schizognathous and none possess basipterygoid processes. The 

 vomer is always present and the angle of the mandible is truncated. 

 There are two carotids. Nostrils pervious (except in Ithinochetus}. 

 Ambiens muscle always present, and caeca generally well developed. 

 The deep flexor tendons are, as a rule, Galline (peculiar in 

 Heliornithidce and modified in Otididce}. The young of most of the 

 families are hatched covered with down and able to run almost 

 immediately, but in Heliornis the young are hatched helpless and 

 nearly naked. All, so far as is known, lay double-spotted eggs that 

 is, eggs with one set of spots distinct and deeply coloured and a 

 second set often purplish or grey, less distinct, and apparently 

 beneath the surface. To the Gralla3 belong several families ; but 

 there are great differences of opinion as to their affinities, and it is 

 sufficient to deal herewith the four represented in India. They 

 may be referred to three suborders : 



a. Oil-gland tufted ; a hallux present. 



a. Holorhinal; sternum with a single 



notch on each side FuLiCARijE. 



V. Schizorhinal ; sternum without notches. GBUES. 

 I. No oil-gland ; holorhinal ; sternum with 



two notches on each side ; no hallux . . OTIDES. 



* For instance, Sclater, ' Ibis,' 1880, p. 408 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. vol. xxiii ; 

 Fiirbringer, ' Untersuchungen,' p. 1566. 



t Newton, "Ornithology," Encycl. Brit. p. 46. 



J P.Z. S. 1892, p. 244 ; id. in Bronn, Kl. u. Ord. Thier-reichs, vi. 4, p. 178. 



