COLUMBIB^—STABNCENABINJE: QUAIL DOVES. 5T1 



Wings short, rounded ; 3d and 4th quills longest, 2d and 4th little shorter, 1st much shorter. 

 Feet strongly zenaidine ; tarsus not shorter than middle toe and elaw ; still, scutellate in front, 

 and hind toe more than half as long as the middle, perfectly insistent. Bill rather long and stout ; 

 frontal feathers obtuse on oulmen. Head and wings without blue-black spots ; whole upper 

 parts highly lustrous. Medium size; form stocky, somewhat quail-like, but tail long. Ap- 

 proaching the next, but at a distance. West Indian and Tropical American. 

 550. G. mai-ti'nica. (Of Martinique.) Key West Dove. Above, vinaceous-red with highly 

 iridescent lustre of various tints ; below, pale purplish fading to creamy ; an infra-ocular stripe 

 ■ and the throat white. Length 11.00 ; wing and tail about 6.00. West Indies and Key West. 

 Florida, where not observed of late. 



50. Subfamily STARN(ENADIN/E : Quail Doves. 



See p. 564. Hallux not perfectly insistent; short, only about half as long as the middle 

 toe and claw. Feet large and stout ; tarsus longer than the middle toe, entirely bare of 

 feathers even on the joint, completely covered with small hexagonal scales. With coeca, but 

 without oU-gland or ambiens muscle, the reverse of the ZenaidmcB, of which it is a remarkable 

 outlying form, grading toward gallinaceous birds in structure and habits ; like some partridges 

 even to the special head-markings. Including one isolated American genus and species, not 

 referable to any established Old World group. 

 201 . STARNCE'NAS. {Starna, name of a genus of partridges ; Gr. olvas, anas, a dove.) Quail 

 Doves. In addition to the foregoing : BUI short, stout; frontal feathers projected in a point on 

 culmen. Wings short, broad, vaulted and much rounded ; first primary reduced. Tail short, 

 broad, nearly even. Size medium ; whole form and appearance quail-like. West Indian., 

 551. S. cyanoce'phala. (Gr. Kvavos, hua/nos, blue; xe^aX^, kephale, head. Fig. 393.) Bltjb- 

 HEADED Quail Dove. Crown rich blue bounded by black ; a white stripe under the eye, 

 meeting its fellow on the chin ; throat black, bordered with white. General color olivaceous- 

 (ihooolate above, purplish-red below, lighter centrally. Length 11.00 ; wing 5.50 : taU 4.50. 

 West Indies and Florida Keys. 



VI. Order Gi-ALLIN^ : Grallinaceous Birds ; Fowls. 



Equivalent to the old order Basores, exclusive of the Pigeons — this name being derived 

 from the characteristic habit of scratching the ground in search of food ; connecting the lower 

 terrestrial pigeons with the higher members of the great plover-snipe group. On the one hand, 

 it shades into the Columbm so perfectly that Huxley has proposed to call the two together the 

 " Gallo-eolumbine series ; " on the other hand,' some of its genera show a strong plover-ward 

 tendency, and have even been placed in Limicolee. I have already (p. 562) noted the inoscula- 

 tion of Gdllina vrith Col/u/mbcB by means of the grouse-like Pigeons, Pterodetes ; it remains to 

 indicate the limits of the Gallmm in other directions, by referring to two remarkable groups, 

 one represented by Opisthoeomus alone, the other consisting of the Hemipods or Turnices. 

 Both of these have usually been refferred to Gallima. 



1. The wonderful Hoatzin of Guiana, Opisthoeomus eristatus, is one of the most isolated 

 and puzzling forms in ornithology, sometimes placed near the Musophagides , but assigned by 

 maturer judgment to the neighborhood of the fowls, which it resembles in many respects, as an in- 

 dependent prder Opisthocomi, sole relict of an ancestral type. The sternum and shoulder-girdle 

 are anomalous ; the keel is cut away in front ; the furcula anchylose with the coracoids (very 

 rare) and with the manubrium of the sternum (unique) ; the digestive system is scarcely less 

 singular ; and other characters are remarkable. 



2. The bush-quails of the Old World, Twniddce, differ widely from the GaUi/nci, re- 

 sembling the Gronse-pigeons and Tinamous in some respects, and related to the Plovers in 



