CHAPTER XXXI. 

 GALLING. 



Game birds — Praecocial. 



This is the order of the true fowls, the quails, the 

 grouse, the guinea fowls, the domestic hens and turkeys, 

 the pheasants, the curassows, and the guans; the two 

 last-named not being known in the United States. 

 Mexico and the Rio Grande country are the home of the 

 guans. 



The order shades into the ground doves of the 

 Columbffi. on the one hand, and into the plovers of the 

 Limicolae, on the other hand. Some of the gallinaceous 

 birds of the Old World are very unlike typical gallinaceous 

 birds. Hence it must appear that the order embraces 

 birds that are far apart as to outward appearance, but 

 are closely related structurally. 



These are birds that for the most part have not been 

 able to endure great extremes of heat and cold; hence 

 their migrations have not been such that they are found 

 far north or far south of a given parallel; nor have their 

 most extensive migrations been north and south, but 

 rather east and west. They are also birds that have been 

 closely connected with the encroachments of man upon 

 new and unsettled territory ; as he has advanced into new 

 country, these birds have receded before him. The 

 prairie chicken is a bird which has suffered in this respect. 

 In northeastern and eastern United States, it was formerly 

 abundant; but is now exceedingly rare, having been 



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