416 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Family PHASIANID^E, OR GAME BIRDS. 



The Game Birds form a large and somewhat ill-defined group. Sclater 

 places them between the Pigeons and the Rails. Forbes associated the 

 Sand-Grouse and the Hemipodes with the Pigeons, the Plovers, the Gulls, 

 and allied birds ; whilst he placed the true Game Birds with the Cuckoos, 

 the Bustards, and the Rails. In the Game Birds the two notches on each 

 side of the sternum are so deep that the exterior portion appears to have 

 lost its character, the broad sternum appearing very narrow and flanked 

 by two lateral processes resembling abnormally developed ribs; but the 

 sternum of the Sand-Grouse is exceptional in this respect, and somewhat 

 resembles that of the Pigeons. The modification of the cranial bones 

 resembles that of the Pigeons, Sandpipers, Gulls, Auks, &c. The ptery- 

 losis of the Game Birds is very specialized ; but that of the Guinea-fowls 

 and Grouse leads on through the Sand-Grouse to the Pigeons. Their 

 myology, on the other hand, is very generalized, but shows affinities with 

 the more highly developed muscular systems of the Sandpipers and other 

 families of Waders. According to Gadow, their digestive organs are 

 nearest allied to those of the Rails. 



There is no family of birds in which there is more variation in the 

 changes of plumage than in the Game Birds. The young are able to fly 

 very soon after they are hatched ; and during the period of growth some 

 of the quills are always being replaced by new feathers slightly larger than 

 the old ones, so that, before the young bird has arrived at its full size, all 

 the quill-feathers have been changed one after another three or four times 

 over, the last change taking place about the time when the autumnal moult 

 of the parent birds occurs. In all Game Birds this autumnal moult is the 

 only complete one that takes place, and it is not known that the Pheasant 

 has any other. In the Partridges and Quails a partial spring moult, 

 apparently confined to the feathers of the head and neck, takes place. 

 According to Meves, the Black Grouse has a similar partial spring moult. 

 It is not known that the Red Grouse has a spring moult ; but its very near 

 ally, the Willow- Grouse, changes the colour of most of its small feathers in 

 spring and moults them in autumn. Macgillivray says that the Ptarmigan 

 has four nearly complete new sets of small feathers every year, the winter 

 plumage being retained for nearly six months, the spring plumage being- 

 assumed in May. Incubation takes place in June ; and from July to 

 November a slow but continuous moult of the small feathers occurs, 



