OF GALLINACEOUS BIRDS AND TINAMOUS. 155 
On the Gallinaceous Group. 
The Pigeons must be excluded from the great Gallinaceous family, and be made to 
stand by themselves. They have intimate relations with the ‘‘ Cracide,” the Hemi- 
podii, the ‘‘ Pteroclinz,” and even with the ‘‘ Megapodiine ;” but they seem to me 
to be worthy of a place to themselves: they are ‘‘ Altrices,” not ‘‘ Praecoces”’ like the 
Fowls. 
I shall be able to show a considerable preponderance of struthious characters in the 
Tinamous, as well as the existence of no very nascent Plover qualities ; they may there- 
fore, notwithstanding their large sternum, be eliminated from the Gallinacee. We 
have then left to us— 
a. The typical ‘‘ Galline,”’ or ‘‘ Phasianine.” 
b. The subtypical or ‘‘ Tetraoninz.”’ 
c. Another subtypical group, the ‘‘ Megapodiine,” in which the Rasorial qualifica- 
tions reach their highest point : this might be called the ultratypical group. 
d. The aberrant ‘‘ Cracine.” 
e. The first inosculant group, the ‘‘ Hemipodiinz.”’ 
f. The second inosculant subfamily, the ‘‘ Pteroclinz.”’ 
a. ‘‘ Galline”’ proper, or “‘ Phasianine.” 
The Common Fowl may be taken as a convenient and good type of this central group 
of Gallinaceous birds ; both in size and structure it is intermediate between the gigantic 
Turkeys on one hand, and the diminutive Quails on the other. The exact border of 
this group, as it impinges upon the somewhat modified ‘‘ Tetraonine,” runs right through 
the genus Perdiz, leaving the Red-legged Guernsey Partridge (P. rubra) on the typical 
side, and the Common Grey Partridge (P. cinerea) on the side of the Ptarmigans. I 
shall speak of the differences between the bony structure of this group and the next in 
treating of the subtypical forms. 
b. The Subtypical ‘‘ Galline,” or ‘‘ Tetraonine.” 
Asa rule, the Grouse are more Pigeon-like in form than the Fowl and its nearest 
congeners—the body being very large in proportion to the legs and feet, whilst the latter 
are sprawling or reptilian. The hallux is still high, as in the typical genera; but there 
is no rudiment of the sharp inner toe, or first of the foot-digits. The structure of the 
whole skeleton is more lathy or fibrous, and tends sensibly towards that of the typical 
Plovers. The skull, so thick even in the little Quail (Coturnix dactylisonans), is, as a 
rule, more thin-walled, less ivory-like, and poor in diploé. The nearness of the brain 
to the outer surface of the skull causes its form to be more exactly a model, even on 
the outside, of the cerebral contents. Plate XXXVI. (figs. 6-10) represents the skull of 
the Red Grouse (Lagopus scoticus), magnified two diameters ; and it can at once be seen 
