GALLINACEOUS GAME BIRDS 



(Order Gallinx) 



Birds that scratch the ground for food, the progenitors of our 

 barn-yard fowls, the game birds par excellence of the sportsman, 

 none are more interesting either from his point of view or from 

 that of the bird student, or of greater commercial value. Certain 

 structural peculiarities are noticeable throughout the group: a 

 greatly enlarged esophagus, now called a crop, receives the 

 bolted food and moistens it, leaving to a very thick, hard gizzard 

 (except in the sage cock) the work of grinding the food with the 

 help of gravel swallowed with it. Usually heavy in body, round 

 breasted, small of head, stout of legs and feet, sometimes with 

 spurs on the former, richly, if often quietly, plumed, the appear- 

 ance of these birds is too familiar to be enlarged upon. They are 

 prolific layers, and raise large broods, that follow the mother like 

 chickens, as soon as hatched, one or more families composing a 

 covey or bevy soon after the nesting season. 



Bob Whites, Grouse, etc. 



(Family Tetraonidce) 



Of the two hundred species contained in this great family, 

 one-half belong to the Old World, where they are known 

 as partridges and quail, names miscellaneously applied to our 

 grouse and Bob Whites, that differ greatly in structure from their 

 European allies, and the source of endless confusion in the 

 popular mind. Three subfamilies go to make up this large 

 family: the Perdicince, or Old World partridges and quail; the 

 Odontophorince, or New World partridges and Bob Whites; and 

 the Tetraonince, or grouse. These fowl-footed birds have the 

 hind toe raised above the ground, differing from the pigeon- 

 footed gallinaceous birds, that have four toes on the same level; 



259 



