CBA CID^ — PEN EL OPIN^ : G UANS. 
573 
51. Subfamily PENELOPIN/E: Cuans, 
with seven genera and thirty-nine species, one of which reaches our border. 
802. OR'TALIS. (Gr. opraXis, 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 12 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 antise. Coloration greenish. Sexes alike. In some points of size, 
shape, and general aspect, there is a curious superficial resemblance between this genus and 
Geococci/x, though the two genera belong to different orders of birds. 
552. o. ve'tula maccal'li. (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 jugulum. 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 ALECTOROPODES : 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 tibiae are rarely naked below ; 
the tarsi often feathered, as the toes also sometimes are ; but ordinarily both these are naked, 
scuteUate and reticulate, and often developing processes (spurs) of horny 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 antise, m' hich frequently 
fill the nasal fossae ; when naked the nostrils show a superincumbent scale. The head is 
frequently naked, wholly or partly, and often develops remarkable fleshy processes. The 
wings are short, stout, and concavo-convex, conferring power of rapid, whirring, but unpro- 
tracted, flight. The tail varies extremely ; it is very small in some genera, enormously devel- 
oped in others; the rectrices 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 cceca. 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. Alectoropodes 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 
