BIRDS OP NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA d 



in Argus). Aftershafts present; neck without lateral apteria; adult 

 downs on pterylae only; wing eutaxic (quintocubital) in Galli and Cra- 

 cidae, diastataxic (aquintocubital) in Megapodii; primaries, 10; rectrices, 

 10 or, usually, more. Nest usually on the ground; eggs numerous (ex- 

 cept in Cracidae), variable in form and coloration. Young ptilopaedic 

 and nidifugous (those of the Megapodii highly so, being able to fly and 

 care for themselves soon after hatching) . 



The following additional external characters may be mentioned : 

 Bill short (usually much shorter than head), generally rather stout, the 

 culmen regularly and rather strongly decurved, the maxilla depressed 

 rather than compressed (except in some Cracidae), its obtuse vaulted tip 

 overhanging the tip of the mandible ; maxillary tomium never dentate or 

 serrate, the mandibular tomium dentate only in Odontophorinae ; nasal 

 fossae naked (except in Tetraonidae and some Cracidae), the horizontal 

 or longitudinal nostril overhung by a corneous operculum. Frontal feath- 

 ers (if present) parted by the backward extension of the culmen. Tibiae 

 always feathered, frequently the tarsi also (at least in part) ; sometimes 

 (in genus Lagopus) the toes also; the tarsi, if unfeathered, usually trans- 

 versely scutellate in front, frequently provided with one or more spurs 

 behind; hallux always present, but varying in relative size and position; 

 anterior toes usually webbed between the basal phalanges ; claws obtuse, 

 slightly curved. Wing strong but relatively short, much rounded, and 

 very concave beneath. Tail excessively variable in shape and develop- 

 ment, the rectrices varying from 8 to 32 in number. 



The Galliformes are nearly cosmopolitan in their distribution, only 

 Polynesia, New Zealand, and the Antarctic regions being without repre- 

 sentatives of the order.^ They are much more numerous in the Northern 

 Hemisphere, to which the typical suborder, Galli, is mostly confined, these 

 being far better represented in the Old World than in America, the large 

 and varied family Phasianidae having its focus in temperate and subtrop- 

 ical Asia. The aberrant superfamily Cracoidea is chiefly confined to the 

 Southern Hemisphere, the Megapodidae to the Australian Region, the 

 Cracidae to the Neotropical Region. One family of Phasianoidea is 

 peculiar to America, this being the Meleagrididae. One phasianoid family 

 (Numididae) is restricted to Africa, another (Tetraonidae) is common to 

 the Palearctic and Nearctic Regions, while the remaining and much more 

 numerous and varied one (Phasianidae) has the widest range of all, 

 every portion of Europe and Asia (except the far Arctic parts), besides 

 portions of the Indo-Malayan and Nearctic Regions, possessing represen- 

 tatives (represented in America not by true pheasants, but only by quail). 



'They are, however, also lacking in certain areas within regions the greater part 

 of which is inhabited by them ; for example, the greater part of the West Indies, 

 and the Revillagigedo and Galapagos island groups. New Zealand formerly possessed 

 a species of Coturnix (C. novae-zealandiae) , but this has become extinct. 



