304 STEUCTUKE AND CLASSIFICATION OF BIEDS 



The Galli share this muscle with the Tinami only ; and no 

 one will doubt on other grounds that the gallinaceous birds 

 and tinamous are distinctly related. It is, however, with 

 the Anseres that the greatest number of special resemblances 

 of this character exist. These have been admitted by 

 Huxley and Parkee ; and more recently, in one of his 

 alternative schemes, Seebohm united the two groups. In 

 these two groups the palatines have the peculiar character 

 of wanting the internal lamina, which is at most indicated 

 by a slight ridge ; in both of them the basipterygoid pro- 

 cesses can hardly be described in those words, as they are 

 but oval facets for the articulation of the pterygoids. The 

 two pairs of extrinsic muscles of the syrinx are one of the 

 strong reasons for uniting the Anseres and the Palamedeae, and 

 we have among the Galli forms in which there are the same 

 extra pair of muscles present. The general habit of a 

 gallinaceous bird is, it is true, somewhat remote from that 

 of an anserine bird ; but Palamedea might with truth be' 

 described as a goose-like bird with external likeness to a 

 curassow, or as a gallinaceous bird which had put on the 

 characters of the Anseres. Its likeness to both is considered 

 on another page. 



The existing genera Tetrao, Lagopus, and Francolinus are 

 known from Pleistocene deposits in countries which they at 

 present inhabit, and the species from which these few remains 

 have been described are existing species. Similarly Coturnix 

 Novm Zealandim and Talegalla Lathami have been met with in 

 the Pleistocene of Australia and New Zealand, both of them being 

 species now living in the localities whence their fossil remains 

 have been extracted. Phasianus is represented by a number of 

 extinct species from Europe as old as the Miocene. Three totally 

 extinct genera described by Milnb-Edwards are Palaortyx, 

 PalcBoperdix, and Taoperdix. These are all Eocene or Miocene 

 and European. Taoperdix presents affinities to Meleagris and 

 Numida. 



