GALLINiE, GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 229 



terrestrial ; the legs are of mean length, and stout ; the toes four (with rare excep- 

 tions), three in front, generallj- connected by basal webbing, but sometimes free, 

 and one beliind, almost alwaj^s short and elevated, occasionally absent. The tibite 

 are rarely nailed below ; the tarsi often featliered, as the toes also sometimes are ; 

 but ordinarily both these are naked, scutellate and reticulate, and often developing 

 processes (sjmrs) of hornj' substance with a bony core, like the horns of cattle. 

 The bill as a rule is short, stout, convex and obtuse ; never cered, nor extensively 

 membranous ; the base of the culmen parts prominent antiae, which frequently fill 

 the nasal fossce ; when naked the nostrils show a superincumbent scale. The head is 

 frequently naked, wholly or partly, and often develops remarkable fleshy processes. 

 The wings are short, stout and concave, conferring power of rapid, whirring, but 

 unprotracted, flight. The tail varies extremely ; it is entirely wanting in some 

 genera, enormously developed in others ; the rectrices vary in number, but are 

 commonly more than twelve. The sternum, with certain exceptions, shows a 

 peculiar conformation ; the posterior notches seen in most birds, are inordinately 

 enlarged, so that the bone, viewed vertically, seems in most of its extent to be 

 simply a narrow central projection, with two long backward processes on each side, 

 the outer commonly hammer-shaped ; this form is modified in the tinainous, curas- 

 sows, mound-birds and sand-grouse, and not at all shown in the hoazin. The palate 

 is schizognathous ; there are other distinctive osteological characters. As a rule, the 

 digestive system presents an ample special crop, a highly muscular gizzard, and 

 large coeca ; " the inferior larynx is always devoid of intrinsic muscles" (Huxley). 

 Excepting the FterocUdcB {?), there are aftershafts, and a circlet around the oil-gland. 

 GaUince are prascocial. A part of them are polj'gamous — a circumstance shown in its 

 perfection by the sultan of the dunghill with his disciplined harem ; and in all such 

 the sexes are conspicuously dissimilar. The rest are monogamous, and the sexes of 

 these are as a rule nearlj' or quite alike. The eggs are very numerous, usually laid 

 on the ground, in a rude nest, or none. The order is cosmopolitan ; but most of its 

 groups have a special geographical distribution ; its great economic importance is 

 perceived in all forms of domestic poultry, and principal game-birds of various 

 countries; and it is unsurpassed in beauty — some of these birds offer the most 

 gorgeous coloring of the class. The characters of the order have been ably 

 exposed by Blanchard, Parker, Huxley and other distinguished anatomists. I 

 will briefly recount the exotic families. 



1. The tinamous, Tinamidce, are so remarkably distinguished by certain cranial 

 characters that Huxley was induced to make them one of his four primary divisions 

 of carinate birds. The palate is " completely struthious ;" the sternum has a 

 singular conformation. An obvious external feature, in many cases, is the entire 

 lack of tail feathers (onlj^ elsewhere wanting among grebes) ; in others, however, 

 these are developed. Conflned to Central and South America, and represented by 

 about forty species, of six or eight genera. 



2. The wonderful hoazin of Guiana, Opisthocomus cristatus, is the sole repre- 

 sentative of a family Opisthocomidce, one of the most isolated and puzzling forms 

 in ornithology, sometimes placed near the Masoplmgidce, but assigned bj^ maturer 

 judgment to the fowls, which it resembles in most respects. The sternum and 

 shoulder-girdle are anomalous ; the keel is cut awaj' in front ; the furcula anchylose 

 with the coracoids (very rare) and with the manubrium of the sternum (unique) ; 

 the digestive sj^stem is scarcel}^ less singular. 



3. The bush-quails of the Old World, Turnicidce, differ widely from other 



