OSTEOLOGY OF THE NORTH AMERICAN TETRAONIDA. 
By R. W. SHUFELDT, M. D., 
Captain, Medical Department, United States Army. 
The representatives of the Gallinaceous order of birds in the North 
American fauna are referred to four families, the Cracidw, the Melea- 
gride, the Tetraonide, and the Perdicide. Members of the family Cra- 
cide or the Curassows, are all American birds, being distributed over 
the continent from the Rio Grande southward. 
The latter group has been divided by Messrs. Sclater and Salvin into 
three subfamilies, the Cracine, the Penelopine, and the Oreophasine. Of 
the fifty or more species making up these subfamilies, at the present 
writing, but one form has been taken within the limits of the United 
States, this being the Ortalis vetula maccalli, the Chachalaca of the 
Texans and Mexicans. The subfamily Penelopine, referred to above, 
has been divided into seven genera, of which Ortalis is the last, and 
the one to which our only North American species belongs. Every 
attempt of the author to secure the skeleton of this interesting bird 
has thus far failed, and as he has had no personal experience with 
Ortalis in its native haunts, the reader is referred to the standard works 
upon ornithology for descriptions of this species. In Meleagride, the 
second family enumerated above, we have but one genus, Meleagris, 
containing the Turkeys, well-known fowls peculiar to North America, 
and of which there are two species, or rather a species, the western 
form, Meleagris gallopavo, and the eastern variety, or subspecies, Melea- 
gris gallopavo americana 
Although the writer has had the opportunity of comparing several 
skeletons and parts of skeletons of both of these forms with the Tetra- 
onide, it must be understood that in recording his observations it has 
only been with the view of calling the readet’s attention to the osteo- 
logical similarities and differences, en passant. Professor Huxley, in his 
studies of this group, has left but little to be desired in the way of 
osteological descriptions, clearly pointing out differential characteris- 
tics existing between the Turkeys and the Numidide, or the Guinea 
Hens. It is the third family, the Tetraonide, in our enumeration that 
has claimed the greatest share of our labor, and to which the title of 
this paper has been awarded in consequence. We have before us a 
complete collection of the skeletons of the members of this group, which 
is unfortunately more than we can say for the partridges, although 
of the latter family we have, we believe, a sufficient number to observe 
their general characteristics. 
The family Tetraonide includes the Grouse, of which there are six 
genera in North America, containing sixteen species, embracing ten 
varieties. Of these we shall give a synopsis further on, showing their 
principal external characters, as set forth by American ornithologists, 
1A second species, M. ocellata, is found in portions of Yucatan, Honduras, and 
Guatemala. 653 
