THE CURASSOWTHE GROUSE. 



229 



fully feathered and able to fly well, he was convinced that it had never seen 

 daylight. 



The curassows form the second sub-order of Professor Huxley's Peristero- 

 podes, and like the megapodes have the hind-toe not elevated, but on the same 

 level as the other toes. They have also a tufted oil-gland, and 

 their whole appearance is more like that of the pheasants and ^ e Curassows. 

 true Game-Birds, and quite different from that of the mega- 

 podes. The wind-pipe is long and convoluted. They like- 

 wise nest in trees and lay two white eggs, and the nestlings have a patterned 

 downy stage, like that of true Game-Birds. Mr. Ogilvie-Grant, who has 

 made a special study of all the Gallinaceous Birds, 

 recognises eleven genera of curassows, and he 

 divides them into two sections, the true curas- 

 sows with a very deep bill, and the guans with 



Sub- Order 



Oraces. 



a more elongated and widened bill, the tipper 

 mandible being broader than it is high. Very 

 little has been recorded of the habits of the curas- 

 sows in their wild state, but they are often to be 

 seen in menageries, where they walk about like 

 great turkeys, or sit on the branches of the trees 

 provided for them. 



Ono of the most curious of the curassows is 

 Lord Derby's guan (Oreophasis derHanns\ or the 

 Derbyan mountain-pheasant, as it is also called. 

 It has the top of the head almost bare, and an 

 elevated kind of cylindrical casque on the crown, 

 situated between the eyes. This remarkable bird 

 is found only in Guatemala, where it is apparently 

 restricted to the forests on the Volcan de Fuego. Fig. 6. THE CRESTED CURAS- 

 Here Mr. Osbert Salvin found it feeding on fruits in 



the higher branches of the forest-trees in the early morning, and descending to 

 the underwood as day advances, remaining there all the day-time, basking or 

 scratching among the leaves. This, says Mr. Salvin, is pretty much what the 

 curassows and guans of the lowlands do. The Indian name for the mountain- 

 guan is " khannanay," and it is apparently very rare even on the mountain 

 which is its sole habitat. 



All the rest of the Game-Birds, comprising by far the greater number of 

 known species, belong to the sub-order Alectoropod.es, and have the hind-toe 

 elevated, and raised above the level of the other toes. Mr. Ogilvie-Grant 

 recognises two large families, the Tetraonidce or grouse, and the Phasiandce. or 

 pheasants and partridges. In the grouse the nostrils are hidden by feathers. 

 The toes are mostly feathered, and there are never any spurs on the legs. 



Eleven genera are recognised as constituting the family Tetraonidce, 

 and among them are the genera Lagopus, Lyrurus, and 

 Tetrao, which are represented in Great Britain by our red 

 grouse and ptarmigan, the black grouse, and the caper- 

 cailzie. 



The willow-grouse or " Ripa " of Scandinavia (Lagopus lagopus) is the 

 most wide-spread of all the group, for it inhabits the northern regions of 

 both hemispheres, varying slightly in different localities, so that many races 

 are recognised by modern ornithologists. These forms, however, all belong 

 to one type, and they are characterised by a common character, the as- 



Tlie Grouse. 

 Family 



Telraonidce. 



