344 ZOOLOGY. 



451. Gallinaceous birds have the bill moderately en- 

 larged above, and adapted only for a granivorous regime ; 

 the wings are short, the body heavy, the legs moderate, and 

 the toes feeble, but united generally at their base by a small 

 cutaneous fold. The majority of these birds fly badly ; they 

 do not build their nests in trees, and they seek for their food 

 on the soil. This order is composed of two distinct fami- 

 lies; that of pigeons and that of the gallinaceous birds, 

 properly so called, comprising the cock, the pheasant, the 

 peacock, the turkey, the pintado or guinea-fowl, the hocco 

 (Fig. 335), the partridge, the quail, the ptarmigan (Fig. 

 334), the grouse, &c. 



Fig. 338. The Dodo (Didus Ineptus). 



[In 1598, when the island of Mauritus was first discovered, 

 this bird, which is now in all probability extinct, abounded 

 there ; it seems to have been extirpated by the European sailors 

 who frequented the island. A few specimens were brought to 

 Europe, and one found its way to Oxford. ;~To the east of the 

 Mauritius and Bourbon is the little island of Rodriguez (where the 

 dodo also abounded), on which three species of wingless birds once 

 existed ; they seem, to have belonged to the same natural family 

 as the dodo, now extinct. Leguat* was also suppo?ed to have 

 described the dodo ; also Frangois Coache ; there thus arose the 

 utmost confusion in respect of the true nature of these birds. 

 The latest researches on this subject, by Messrs. Strickland and 

 Melvill, arrange the extinct dodo with the columbidae, or pigeons. 

 K. K.] 



* A French voyager. 



