COLUMBID^ — STABNCENADIN^: QUAIL DOVES. 571 



Wings short, rounded; 3d and 4th quills longest, 2d and 4th little shorter, 1st much shorter. 

 Feet strongly zenaidine ; tarsus nut shorter than middle toe aud claw; still, scutellate in front, 

 and liind toe more thau half as long as the midiilc, perfe<',tly insistent. Bih rather long and stout ; 

 frdiitiil feathers oUuse on culmeu. Head aud wings without hlue-black spots; whcde upper 

 parts highly lustrous. Medium size ; form stocky, somewhat quail-hke, hut tail long. Ap- 

 proaching the next, hut at a distance. West Indian and Tropical American. 

 550. G. marti'nlca. (Of Martinique.) Key West Dove. Above, vinaceous-red with highly 

 iridescent lustre of various tints ; Ixdcnv, pale purplish fading to creamy ; an infra-ocular stripe 

 and the throat white. Length 11.00 ; wing aud tail about (i.OO. West Indies and Key West. 

 Florida, where not observed of late. 



50. Subfamily STARNCENADIN>E : Quail Doves. 



See p. 564. Hallux not perfectly insistent; short, only about half as long as the middle 

 toe and claw. Feet large and stout ; tarsus longer than the middle toe, entirely bare of 

 feathers even on the j(-)iut, completely covered with small hexagonal scales. With coeca, but 

 without oil-gland or ambiens muscle, the reverse of the Zenaidints, of which it is a remarkable 

 outlying form, grading toward gallinaceous birds in structure and habits ; like some partridges 

 even to the special head-markings. Including one isolated American genus and species, nt)t 

 referable to any established Old World group. 

 201. STARNCB'NAS. (Starna, name of a genus of partridges; Or. oiVdr, cenas, a dove.) QuAiL 

 DiiVES. In addition to the foregoing : Bill short, stout; frontal f(^athers projected in a point on 

 culmen. Wings short, broad, vaulted and much rounded ; first pjrimary reduced. Tail short, 

 broad, nearly even. Size medium ; whole form and apjiearance quail-like. West Indian. 

 551. S. cyanoce'phala. (Or. Kvavos, humms, blue; KetpaXrj, hepliale, head. Fig. 393.) Bltte- 

 heatjed Quail Dove. Crown rich blue bounded Ijy black ; a white stripe under the eye, 

 uireting its fellow on the chin ; throat black, bordered with white. General color olivaceous- 

 chocolate above, purpli.sh-red below, lighter centrally. Length 11.00 ; wing 5.50 : tail 4.50. 

 West Indies and Florida Keys. 



VI. Order GALLING ; Gallinaceous Birds ; Fowls. 



Equivalent to the old order Basores, exclusive of the Pigeons — this name lieing derived 

 from the characteristic habit of scratcliing the ground in search of food ; connecting the lower 

 terrestrial pigeons with the higher members of the great plover-snipe group. On the one hand, 

 it shades into the Columba so perfectly that Huxley has pmposed to call the two together the 

 " Oallo-columbine series ; " on the other hand, some of its genera show a strong plover-ward 

 tendency, and have even been placed in Limicolce. I have already (p. 562) noted the inoscula- 

 tion of OaUinae with Columbce by means of the grouse-like Pigeons, Pterodetes ; it remains to 

 indicate the limits of the GaUince in other directions, by referring to two remarkable groups, 

 one represented by Opisthocomus alone, the other consisting of the Hemipods or Turniees. 

 Both of these have usually been referred to Gallina. 



1. The wonderful Hoatzin of Guiana, Opisthocomus cristatus, is one of the most isolated 

 and puzzling forms in ornithrdogy, sometimes placed near the Musopliagida;, but assigned by 

 maturer judgment to the neighborhood of the fowls, which it resemWes in many respects, as an in- 

 dependent order Opisthocomi, sole relict of an ancestral type. The sternum and shoulder-girdle 

 are anomalous ; the keel is cut away in front ; the furcula anchylose with the coracoids (very 

 rare) and with the manubrium of the sternum (unique) ; the digestive system is scarcely less 

 singular ; and other characters are remarkable. 



2. The bush-quails of the Old World, Turnicida:, differ widely from the Gallina, re- 

 sembling the Grouse-pigeons and Tinamous in some respects, and related to the Plovers in 



