CBACID^ — PENELOPIN^ : GUANS. 673 



51. Subfamily PENELOPIN^: Cuans, 



with seven genera and thirty-nine species, one of which reaches our border. 



j02. OR'TAIilS. (Gr. ofyrdKls, ortalis, a pullet.) GuANS. Head crested ; its sides, and strips on the 

 chin, naked, but no wattles. Tarsi naked, scutellate before and behind, with small scales 

 between the scutellar rows. Hind toe insistent, about i the middle toe. Tail graduated, 

 ample, fan-shaped, longer than the much rounded wings, of 13 broad, obtuse feathers. Wings 

 short, concavo-convex, with abbreviated outer primaries, the secondaries reaching about to the 

 ends of the longest primaries, when the wing is folded. Bill slender for a gallinaceous bird, 

 without decided frontal antisB. Coloration greenish. Sexes alike. In some points of size, 

 shape, and general aspect, there is a curious superficial resemblance between this genus and 

 Geococcyx, though the two genera belong to different orders of birds. 



552. o. ve'tula maccal'U. (Lat. vetula, a little old woman. To Geo. A. McCall.) Texan 

 GuAN. Chachalaca. Dark glossy olivaceous, paler and tinged with brownish- yellow below, 

 plumbeous on the head ; tail lustrous green, tipped with grayish-white except on the middle 

 pair of feathers ; bill and feet plumbeous ; iris brown. Length 22.00-24.00 ; extent 24.00- 

 28.00 ; wing 7-50-9.00 ; tail 9.00-11.00 ; tarsus 2.00 or more ; middle toe and claw about the 

 same. 9 similar. Downy young : Above, mixed brown, ashy and tawny, with a black central 

 stripe from bill to tail; below white, ashy on the jngulum. Mexico to Texas in the Lower 

 Rio Grande Valley, abounding in some localities. A notable bird, unlike anything else in this 

 country. Easily domesticated, said to be used as a game fowl. Very noisy in the breeding 

 season (April), reiterating the syllables cha-cha-lac in a loud hoarse tone. Nest in bushes, 

 a slight structure; eggs generally 3, with a thick, granular, and very hard shell, like a 

 Guinea-fowl's, oblong-oval, buff-colored or creamy-white, large for the bird, 2.35X1.60. 



11. Suborder ALECTOEOPODES : True Fowls. 



The birds of this suborder are more or less perfectly terrestrial; the legs are of mean 

 length, and stout; the toes four, three in front, generally connected by basal webbing, but 

 sometimes free, and one behind, always short and elevated. The tibise are rarely naked below ; 

 the tarsi often feathei'ed, as the toes also sometimes are ; but ordinarily both these are naked, 

 scutellate and reticulate, and often developing processes (spivrs) of homy 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 antisB, which frequently 

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

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

 wings are short, stout, and concavo-convex, conferring power ■ of rapid, whirring, but uupro- 

 tracted, flight. The tail varies extremely; it is very small in some genera, enormously devel- 

 oped in others: the reetrices vary in number, but are commonly more than twelve. The 

 sternum without certain exception 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. There are other distinctive osteological characters, 

 as noted above. The digestive system presents an ample special crop, a highly muscular 

 gizzard, and large cosca. The inferior larynx is always devoid of intrinsic muscles; the 

 structure of the trachea varies with genera, presenting some curious modifications. There 

 are after-shafts, and a circlet around the oil-gland. Alectoropodcs are prsecocial and ptilopsedic. 

 A part of them are polygamous — a circumstance shown in its perfection by the sultan of the • 

 dung-hill 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 nearly or quite alike. The 



