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 " Cracidse," the Hemi- 

 podii, the " Pteroclinse," and even with the " Megapodiinae ; " but they seem to me 

 to be worthy of a place to themselves : they are " Altrices," not " Prsecoces " 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 Gallinaceee. We 

 have then left to us — 



a. The typical " Gallina;," or " Phasianinse." 



6. The subtypical or " Tetraoninse." 



c. Another subtypical group, the " Megapodiinae," in which the Rasorial qualifica- 

 tions reach their highest point : this might be called the ultr atypical group. 



d. The aberrant " Cracinse." 



e. The first inosculant group, the " Hemipodiinse." 



/. The second inosculant subfamily, the " Pteroclinae." 



a. " Gallinm" proper, or " Phasianinw." 



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 " Tetraoninae," runs right through 

 the genus Perdix, 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 " Gallince," or " Tetraonince." 



As a 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 diploe. 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 ot 

 the Red Grouse {Lagopus scoticus), magnified two diameters ; and it can at once be seen 



