INTRODUCTION. 
53 
under contribution for the luxury and refinement 
of this partial territory, as the fowls, turkeys, 
peacocks, and pintadoes, of the most ordinary 
farm and poultry yards will at all times show. 
Africa may he stated as next in scarcity, and her 
arid plains are most suitable to the Struthionidce, 
the noble ostrich, and numerous bustards, exhi- 
biting’ its rasorial character, accompanied by a 
peculiar form of partridges, and the genus Pte- 
rocles, or sand-grouse, while the guinea fowls seem 
to be the arboreal form, and frequent the lines of 
wood and cover which fringe the borders of the 
streams and rivers ; hut in this remarkable country 
we see every deficiency in this family of birds, as 
a mean of sustenance, more than compensated by 
the innumerable herds of ruminating quadrupeds, 
particularly antelopes, which are followed after 
and fed upon by the wandering hordes. It is 
in Central Asia and North America, with the nor- 
thern half of the Southern Continent, that we 
find the great stronghold of the typical Rasores. 
In the former, we have the stock of our domestic 
poultry, the splendid pheasants and gorgeous pea- 
cocks, all so successfully introduced to Europe, be- 
sides bustards, numerous partridges, and pigeons, 
and the cassowary, or the Asiatic representation of 
the ostrich. To North America we are indebted 
for the turkey, and it possesses many species of 
grouse, in size, with a single exception, generally 
exceeding those of Europe. In the Southern Con- 
tinent we encounter the whole family of the Cra- 
