GALLINACEOUS BIRDS 



GdUince. 



Among the gallinaceous birds, also called Gallmce 

 cock family and formerly Rasores, scratchers are to 

 be found by far the most numerous and economically 

 the most important of the upland game birds. The 

 group includes the turkeys, guinea fowl, pheasants, 

 grouse, partridges, quail and some other groups, wild 

 and domesticated, which are especially used for food. 

 On the one hand it is allied to the pigeons, and on the 

 other to the cranes, and through them to the limicoline 

 birds, which include the snipe, woodcock, plover and so 

 on. The great systematist, Huxley, divided the galli- 

 naceous birds into two groups, one of which he called 

 Alecteropodes, or fowl-footed, in which the hind toe is 

 small, and elevated above the others as, for example, 

 in the domestic hen, the turkey and the grouse while 

 to the other division he gave the name Peristeropodes, 

 or pigeon-footed, in which the hind toe is well devel- 

 oped and long, and all four toes are in the same plane 

 and rest equally upon a flat surface in walking as the 

 pigeons, currassows and others. 



The English naturalists consider all the gallinaceous 

 game birds which we know here in northern North 



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