SYRRHAPTES. 417 



the summer, autumn, and winter plumages being successively assumed 

 without any apparent interval between them. 



The external characters of the Game Birds are very varied. Among the 

 species in this family may be found birds of the most brilliant colours, and 

 their heads are often adorned with caruncles, wattles, combs, and warty 

 excrescences of the brightest tints. The hind toe is often small, some- 

 times absent, and when present always elevated above the plane of the 

 others, whilst the toes are connected at the base by a membrane. The 

 wings are generally very rounded and composed of ten primaries ; but the 

 tail is very variable in form, length, and number of feathers. The bill is 

 short, curved, and wide at the base. The true Game Birds may be divided 

 into several groups, respecting the importance of which authorities differ 

 in opinion. Some of these have been raised by various ornithologists to the 

 rank of orders ; others are constituted as families and subfamilies ; whilst 

 ornithologists who take a broad view of the subject treat them as genera. 

 Of these, the Peacocks are only known in the British Islands in a domes- 

 ticated state ; the Pheasants are represented by at least one species, whose 

 importation into this country dates so far back that it is now regarded as 

 an indigenous bird ; the Guinea-fowls and Turkeys are only represented in 

 our farmyards ; the Partridges are indigenous to our islands, as are also 

 the Grouse ; but the Sand-Grouse can only claim to be British in conse- 

 quence of the accidental appearance of numerous examples of one species 

 which have visited our islands. 



The young of Game Birds differ from the young of all the other birds 

 hitherto mentioned in this volume in being born covered with down, able 

 to see, and in a few hours to run and search for their own food. 



There are about 270 species of Game Birds, which are distributed over 

 the whole world with the exception of the Australian Region and South 

 America, where they are represented by a somewhat nearly allied family, 

 which differs in having the hind toe on the same plane as the others. 

 Eighteen species are European, and three others occasionally occur in 

 Europe; of these, nine species are British, and one has visited our 

 Islands. 



Genus SYRRHAPTES. 



The Sand-Grouse were included by Linnaeus in his genus Tetrao ; but in 

 1811 the genus Syrrhaptes was established for their reception by Illiger, in 

 his 'Prodronius Systematis Mammalium et Avium* (p. 243). Pallas's 

 Sand-Grouse being the only species mentioned by him, becomes of 

 necessity the type. 



VOL. II. 2 



