BIRDS OP NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 5 



=Cracoidea WetmorE, Smiths. Misc. Coll., Ixxxix, No. 13, 1934, 6; xcix. No. 



7, 1940, 5. — American Ornithologists' Union, Check-list, ed. 4, 1931, 78. — 



Peters, Check-list Birds of World, ii, 1934, 3. 

 =Cracides Wetmohe and Miller, Auk, xliii, 1926, 342. — Wetmore, Proc. U. S. 



Nat. Mus., Ixxvi, art. 24, 1930, 3. 



Galliform birds with the hallux incumbent (inserted at same level as 

 anterior toes), its basal phalanx as long as that of third toe; sternum 

 with inner notches relatively short, extending for less than half the 

 length of the sternum, the outer division of the short and broad lateral 

 process widely expanded terminally on both sides, the costal process short, 

 with anterior edge at right angles with long axis of sternum, the episternal 

 process perforated to receive the feet of the coracoids. 



KEY TO THE FAMILIES OF CKACOIDEA 



a. Sternum less than twice as long as its inner notch ; trachea generally coiled ; 

 both carotids present ; biceps slip never present ; oil gland feathered ; hallux 

 relatively shorter, toes all much shorter and smaller; wing eutaxic (quin- 



tocubital) ; arboreal ; nidification normal Cracidae (p. S) 



aa. Sternum more than twice as long as its inner notch ; trachea always straight ; 

 only one carotid (the left) present; biceps slip sometimes present; oil gland 

 nude ; hallux relatively longer, all the toes much longer and stouter ; wing 

 diasataxic (aquintocubital) ; terrestrial ; nidification highly peculiar. 



Megapodidae (extralimital)* 



Family Ckacidae: Curassows, Guans, and Chachalacas 



=Alectrides Vieillot, Analyse, 1816, 49 (includes actually only genus Penelope 

 but by implication entire family) . 



'^Megapodidae Lilljeborg, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1866, IS. — Elliot, Stand. 

 Nat. Hist., iv, 188S, 229, in text.— Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxii, 1893, 33, 445.— 

 Knowlton, Birds of the World, 1909, 49, 268. =Megapodiidae Cams, Handb. Zool, 

 i, 1868-75, 324.— Gadow, Qassif. Vertebr., 1898, 34. =Megapodiidae Sharpe, Hand- 

 list, i, 1899, X, 12. >Struthiones alis volantibus Wagler, Nat. Syst. Av., 1830, 6, 

 127 (includes Crypturi). >Crypturidae Nitzsch, Syst. Pterylog., 1840, 117 (in- 

 cludes Crypturi and Hemipodii). >Megapodinae Gray, Gen. Birds, iii, 1849, 490. 

 <Megapodiinae Carus, Handb. Zool., i, 1868-75, 325. <Talegalinae Gray, Gen. 

 Birds, iii, 1849, 488. <Talegallinae Carus, Handb. Zool., i, 1868-75, 325. The 

 Megapodidae or moundfowls are a group of plainly colored terrestrial gallinaceous 

 birds of most remarkable habits. They are unique among birds (as far as 

 known) in their nidification ; for, instead of building a nest and incubating their 

 eggs, several individuals of the same species together scrape up, with their power- 

 ful feet, dead leaves and other rubbish of the forest floor into an immense heap, 

 sometimes as much as 30 feet in diameter, in which their eggs are deposited, then 

 covered with the same material, and left to be hatched by the heat generated by 

 the decomposing mass. The young are hatched with wings sufficiently developed 

 for immediate flight, and after emerging they shift for themselves without any help 

 or protection from their parents. One monotypic genus, Megacephalon, represented 

 by the Males, or Mallee-fowl, of Celebes and Sanghir {M. males), buries its eggs 

 in the warm sand along the seashore. The group is essentially confined to the 

 Australian Region, one species only occurring in Borneo and the Philippines. 

 653008°— 46 2 



