190 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



Partridges. So violent a dissociation of the sexes of 

 the same bird could not possibly have occurred had the 

 learned author been guided throughout by general prin- 

 ciples, or even had he paid due attention to a minute 

 but important character, peculiar to these birds and 

 their immediate affinities, and indubitably closely con- 

 nected with their habits and mode of life. This pecu- 

 liarity consists in the absence of the clavv^ on the hinder 

 toe, which is thus rendered even less available than in 

 many other groups of the Gallinaceous Order. But 

 the sagacity of our venerable ornithologist was not long 

 at fault, and in the Supplement to his work he removed 

 the male into its true position with the female, having 

 in the mean time satisfied himself of their specific 

 identity by the examination both of dead and living 

 specimens. 



Almost the only point of resemblance between this 

 species and the Pigeons consists in the crest on the 

 head of the male, by means of which it might be sup- 

 posed to exhibit an analogical relation to the Great 

 Crowned Pigeon of the Indian Archipelago. With the 

 Partridges, however, its affinity is extremely close, for 

 there is little to distinguish them except the striking 

 peculiarity just mentioned. Sonnerat, and after him 

 Sparrman, were inclined to consider the Rouloul as a 

 species of Pheasant, between which and the Partridges 

 it unquestionably forms one of the connecting links. 

 Subsequently, in the Encyclopedic Methodique, the 

 Abbe Bonnaterre raised it to the rank of a genus, 

 under the name of Rollulus, for which M. Temminck 

 has substituted that of Cryptonyx, and M. Vieillot of 

 Liponyx, both derived from its principal character. 

 The name given by Bonnaterre seems to have been 

 abandoned, and that of M. Temminck to have been 

 adopted, by general consent. 



