ORDER I. 

 GALLING. 



GALLINACEOUS BIRDS, OB POULTRY, 



BIRDS of this order are the most useful to man as food, and 

 they have been longest and most completely domesticated, 

 though none of the domesticated species are originally Bri- 

 tish birds. There are five of them ; the common fowl, origi- 

 ginally from Asia, but the particular locality undetermined, 

 the small variety called the Bantam, is of more recent im- 

 portation, and from Java; the peacock, also from Asia; the 

 guinea-hen, from Africa; the turkey, from America; and the 

 pheasants, from Asia, the common ones from the western 

 parts of that continent, and those of finer plumage from 

 China. It is only those which are in a state of complete 

 domestication that are called poultry, the common name of 

 the wild ones is game. 



GENERAL CHARACTERS OF THE GALLING. 



The body bulky, the head small, and the legs so placed as 

 to balance the body, and leave the head free. Three toes 

 before, united by a membrane at their bases, and one behind 

 articulated on the tarsus, or foot-bone (often called the leg), 

 above the articulation of the front toes ; so that in walking, 

 which is the principal motion of the order, as they feed on 

 the ground, the front toes are chiefly used. Claws hollowed 

 on their under sides, and adapted for scraping in the soil. 

 The tarsi of some of the males armed with a horny spur, 



