GALLINACE^E. 335 



whence the name. Through so many centuries, how- 

 ever, it has not yet become sufficiently acclimatized 

 to bear our cold and humid atmosphere without pro- 

 tection. 



Like most of their kindred, the Pheasants depend 

 more habitually upon their swiftness of foot than 

 upon their power of wing. Their short, concave 

 wings, are sufficient to bear them up from quadru- 

 pedal foes, and to raise them to their nightly perch ; 

 but they fly with difficulty and evident reluctance. 

 The Argus Pheasant, to which we have above alluded, 

 is retarded in flight, notwithstanding the size of its 

 wings, by the great developement of their secondary 

 feathers ; it is thereby, however, aided in running, 

 which it does with great velocity. In courting his 

 females, he, like the Turkey, scrubs his beautiful 

 wings against the ground, and erects and opens his 

 long tail, which at other times is carried horizontally 

 extended, and folded together. 

 



Gallus,* the Fowl. 



At home in the streets of our crowded cities, as 

 well as in our barn-yards, the common Fowls, though 

 visitants from farthest India, are as familiar to us as 

 " the Sparrow that sitteth upon the housetop." The 

 Fowl is furnished with a fleshy crest, or comb, upon 

 the crown, and wattles on the throat : the quills of 

 the tail are fourteen, placed back to back on two 

 planes ; and the tail-coverts, greatly lengthened, ex- 



* Its Latin name. 



