344 GEOGRAPHICAL ZOOLOGY. [fart iv. 



with crests or other ornamental plumes, so prevalent in the order 

 to which they belong. The sub-families and genera, according 

 to the arrangement of Messrs. Sclater and Salvin, are as 

 follows : — 



TiNAMiN^, 7 genera.. — Tinamus (7 sp.), Mexico to Paraguay; 

 Nothocercus (3 sp.), Costa Eica to Venezuela and Ecuador; Crypt- 

 urus (16 sp.), Mexico to Paraguay and Bolivia ; Rhynchotus (2 

 sp.), Bolivia and South Brazil to La Plata ; Nothoprocta (4 sp.), 

 Ecuador to Bolivia and Chili ; Nothura (4 sp.), Brazil and Bolivia 

 to Patagonia ; Taoniscus (1 sp.), Brazil to Paraguay. 



TiNAMOTiN.^, 2 genera. — Calodromas (1 sp.). La Plata and 

 Patagonia ; Tinamotis (1 sp.), Andes of Peru and Bolivia. 



General BemarJcs on the Distribution of Qallinm. 



There are about400 known species of Gallinaceous birds grouped 

 into 76 genera, of which no less than 65 are each restricted 

 to a single region. The Tetraonidse are the only cosmopolitan 

 family, and even these do not extend into Temperate South Ameri- 

 ca, and are very poorly represented in Australia. The Cracidse 

 and Tinamidse are strictly Neotropical, the Megapodiidse almost 

 as strictly Australian. There remains the extensive family of the 

 Phasianidse, which offers some interesting facts. We have first 

 the well-marked sub-families of the Numidinse and Meleagrinse, 

 confined to the Ethiopian and Nearctic regions respectively, and 

 we find the remaining five sub-families, comprising about 60 

 species, many of them the most magnificent of known birds, 

 spread over the Oriental and the south-eastern portion of the 

 Paltearctic regions. This restriction is remarkable, since there 

 is no apparent cause in climate or vegetation why pheasants 

 should not be found wild throughout southern Europe, as they 

 were during late Tertiary and Post-Tertiary times. We have also 

 to notice the remarkable absence of the Pheasant tribe from 

 Hindostan and Ceylon, where the peacock and jungle-fowl are 

 their sole representatives. These two forms also alone extend 

 to Java, whereas in the adjacent islands of Borneo and Sumatra 

 we have Ar^usianus, Polyplectron, and Euplocamus. The com- 

 mon jungle-fowl (the origin of our domestic poultry) is the only 



