GAME OF AMERICA. 
35 
It is to those stupid misnomers, as I shall show hereafter, that 
one-half the confusion and difficulty arises among sportsmen 
with regard to the objects of their pursuit. 
We now come to the winged game ; and here we shall find 
less difficulty in deciding what species are properly game; 
though, with regard to one or two families, much more in ascer¬ 
taining the correct denominations of the birds themselves, it 
being no easy task to assign the individuals known by some bar¬ 
barous nickname to any real tribe or order. 
All the game birds, proper, of this continent, then, belong to 
three orders; one of land, and two of—as they are called—wa¬ 
ter birds; although several species of the latter are found inland 
and on uplands. 
All our game, coming under the head of land-birds, proper, 
are of the order termed by ornithologists Rasores ; and belong to 
two families, Pavonidce , and Tetraonidce ; or birds following the 
types of the Peacock, and of the Grouse. Of these again we 
have three subdivisions— Meleagris , or Turkey ; Ortyx , or Ame¬ 
rican Quail; and Tetrao , or Grouse. 
Of the second* family Pavonidce , and first genus Meleagris , the 
United States possess but one species. 
The Wild Turkey. Meleagris Gallipavo. 
Of the third family Tetraonidce, , and first genus, Ortyx , Quail, 
there are no less than six distinct species within the territories 
now belonging, or about shortly to belong,to the United States; 
and I think it well at least to mention their names and places of 
residence; as experience teaches us that our population spreads 
with such vast rapidity, that tracts, which are a wilderness one 
year, are the next almost thickly settled places ; so that it is by 
no means impossible, nor even very improbable, that within a 
few years, more or less, these varieties of Quail, now known only 
to a few minute and laborious ornithologists, may be as regularly 
hunted and as scientifically killed as our own domestic bird of 
the same kin. They are these— 
* The first family, Columbida , of this order, the third of land-birds, are no 
game. 
