12 
INTRODUCTION. 
Natterer of Vienna, the Prince Massena, the Earl of Derby, the Baron de la Fresnaye, the Zoological 
Society of London, the Viscomte DuBus, the Directors of the Royal Museums of Berlin, Leyden and 
Paris, and the Museums of Neufchatel and the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia; all of whom 
have, where necessary, most liberally lent me even unique specimens for illustration, besides which 
my own collection has been from time to time enriched by the addition of several new and undescribed 
species. 
All the members of this group are strictly American, and by far the greater number of them are natives of 
that portion of the continent lying between the 30th degree of North latitude and the Equator. Four species 
are now included in the fauna of North America, and four have been discovered in Brazil; some few extend 
their range to the larger of the West Indian Islands; the late researches among the Andes, particularly 
in Peru, Bolivia, and the neighbourhood of Santa Fe de Bogota, have made us acquainted with several 
others; and it is in the countries contiguous to that vast mountain range that additional species may most 
probably yet be found. 
That the members of this group are of very general interest to ornithologists, is evidenced by the fact 
that several writers have given a synoptical list of the species with which they were acquainted. Not more 
than two appear to have been known to Linnaeus, by whom they were included in his genus Tetrao. Latham, 
in the eighth volume of his “ General History of Birds,” published in 1823, enumerates nine species, two 
of which being synonymous with others, the number is reduced to seven. At the first Scientific Meeting of 
the Zoological Society of London, held on the 9th of November, 1830, Mr. Vigors stated that nine species 
were then known, to which he added Ortyx neoxenus and 0. a/Jims, at the same time expressing his doubts 
as to whether they might not prove to be females or young males of Ortyx Sonninii or 0 . cristatus ; and it has 
since been ascertained that his 0 . neoxenus is the female of 0 . cristatus ; but his 0 . affinis will, I believe, 
prove to be a distinct species. M. Lesson was the next author who gave a list of the species of this group, 
of which he only enumerates nine ; and the last writers who appear to have given a general revision of the 
subject are Messrs. Jardine and Selby, who in the Synopsis Specierum published in the first and 
third volumes of their “ Illustrations of Ornithology,” increase the number to eleven. By most of these 
authors, some mistakes have been made as to the identity of the species and the synonyms having reference 
to them; and in more than one instance, the old Perdix Falklandicus , a bird belonging to a totally different 
group, is included in the genus Ortyx. Few of my readers will, I apprehend, be prepared to learn that not 
less than thirty-five species are now known ; of these, several have been lately described by myself in the 
“ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,” and others by Messrs. Lichtenstein, Lesson and Natterer in 
various continental publications. Vieillot was the first author who perceived the propriety of separating one 
of the members of this group from Tetrao and Perdix ; proposing the term Odontophorus for the Tetrao 
Guianensis of Gmelin; a fact, with which Mr. Stephens must have been unacquainted when he proposed 
the term Ortyx for the American Partridges collectively, with 0. Virginiams for the type. These two 
DSI 
