Chapter IX: Introduction (8)

_Aesalon regulus_, the Merlin, called the Stone-Falcon from its habit of perching on rocks, is a lively and interesting little species, daring yet confiding, which preys chiefly upon small birds, and flies less swiftly than the Hobby, though both are used for Lark-hawking. The shrill note is chiefly heard at the breeding-quarters, which in Britain are generally on steep hill-slopes, especially where stony outcrops break the heather or grass; from four to six eggs–duller and less blotched than those of the Kestrel, being deposited in a hole scraped in the bare ground. Abroad–and exceptionally in Scotland–old nests in trees or rocky ledges are utilized, and the bird is perhaps occasionally its own architect. Fairly common north of Derbyshire its summer range extends over the moorlands from Shetland to Devonshire, and includes Ireland, while it visits the sea-coast in autumn. It occurs accidentally in Greenland, and reaches thence to the Pyrenees and the Alps, being found across Northern and Central Europe and Asia, and migrating to North Africa, North India, and South China. The male is slaty-blue with rusty nape and under surface, and is streaked with dusky throughout; the throat is white, as is the tip of the tail, which, besides six imperfect bars, shows a broad sub-terminal black band. The dark brown female has the lower parts white, the rectrices exhibiting eight light {178}bars. In the very similar _Ae. columbarius_, the "Pigeon Hawk" of North America, extending to Venezuela and Ecuador, the tail-bars in the respective sexes are four and six. This species and the following usually build in trees, using twigs, roots, grass, and moss for their nests. _Ae._ (_Chicquera_) _typus_, the Indian "Turumti," is a larger bird, both male and female being grey above and white below, with red head and dark barring nearly throughout, while Ethiopian _Ae._ (_C._) _ruficollis_ is slightly less striped.

The most typical member of the Family is _Falco peregrinus_, the almost cosmopolitan Peregrine Falcon, of which the sub-species _F. melanogenys_ and _F. ernesti_, the commonest forms from the Sunda Islands to China and Fiji, are more closely barred below, though not so broadly as _F. cassini_ of the extreme south of America. The colour is slaty-grey above with darker transverse markings, the head and a stripe down each side of the neck being blackish, and the under parts ruddy-white banded with black. Young birds are browner, and are streaked instead of barred. Barely separable is the smaller and darker _F. minor_ of South Africa, the Comoro Islands, and Madagascar, with its larger race _F. punicus_, found from Morocco along both sides of the Mediterranean to Asia Minor. _F. barbarus_, also of the Mediterranean region, but chiefly confined to Africa north of the Niger, and the Soudan, is distinguished by its red nape, brightest in the larger sub-species, _F. babylonicus_, which occurs from Babylonia to North India. The Peregrine Falcon, often erroneously called Goshawk in Scotland–a fact accounting for many British records of the latter–is for its size the most powerful of the Family; and, being one of the "noble" or long-winged forms, is much used in Falconry, wherein the male is termed "Tiercel" and the female "Falcon," as in many other species; while Hunting Hawk, "Blue Hawk," and, for the young, "Red Hawk," are names common to both sexes.

Far the most daring of our Birds of prey, the fierceness and courage are especially shewn in defence of its nestlings, both parents dashing angrily at an intruder, and, though rarely touching him, swooping down in unpleasant proximity, as he clambers along some narrow ledge or swings upon his rope. Should, however, the hen-bird, which sits very closely, have fresh eggs, she disappears on leaving them, though her consort flies wildly to and fro at some little distance, reiterating his shrill cry. Exceptionally {179}savage adults may even strike the person; nevertheless, Skuas and certain Owls are decidedly more dangerous, whereas the ordinary Eagle is mild in comparison. The food consists of ducks, guillemots, pigeons, grouse, and partridges, varied by rabbits and so forth; yet, in spite of the undoubted damage caused to game, preservers would be wise to spare a due proportion of individuals in view of their utility in killing off the more weakly and diseased birds. The two to four eggs, usually finely blotched or thickly mottled with rich red on a creamy ground–though one is often paler or yellowish–are deposited in a hollow scraped on some bare or grassy ledge of a sea-girt or inland cliff; but occasionally nests in trees are utilized, or broken ground in northern regions. Two or more sites are often tenanted in turn. Long distances are traversed in search of food, the survivor of a pair mating again marvellously quickly, considering the comparatively scanty supply of partners.

_F. peregrinator_ (_atriceps_), the Shaheen or Royal Falcon, of India, Ceylon, and Tenasserim, distinguishable by the deep ferruginous under surface and the general absence of barring, is much prized by natives for hawking, as is the docile but delicate and less courageous Lanner (_F. feldeggi_ or _tanypterus_) by the Bedouins. The latter is buffish-brown, with ruddy crown and nape, a grey tinge towards the rufous-barred tail, and fawn-coloured lower parts with brown spots; it ranges from Loango and Unyamuesi in Africa as far as South Europe and Persia, and lays four eggs–lighter than those of the Peregrine–in rocks, ruins, or disused birds' nests, the Dashoor Pyramid being a well-known site. _F. biarmicus_, a close ally from South Africa, is nearly spotless below.

Of the genus _Gennaea_ or "Desert Falcon," _G. sacer_ (_lanarius_ or _milvipes_), the Saker, found from North Africa and East Europe to North China, has brown upper parts mottled with fulvous, whitish crown, nape, and lower surface streaked with brown, and white markings across the tail. A swift and fairly bold denizen of open country, it is used for bustard-, gazelle- or heron-hawking by Indians and Arabs, while it also preys on hares, birds, and lizards. It deposits three or four rather pointed white eggs, blotched or spotted with various shades of red, in a nest of sticks and grass, normally placed in a tree. _G. jugger_, the Luggur of India and Afghanistan, differs in being greyer above and less streaked below, with rufous crown and nearly uniform tail, whereas _G. mexicana_ (_polyagrus_), the Prairie {180}Falcon of Mexico and the western United States, has the head brown. _G. hypoleuca_, of Australia, is grey and black, with barred tail, and dusky shaft-streaks on the whitish lower parts; _G. subnigra_ of the same country being almost plain blackish-brown.

Much controversy has arisen concerning the noble Arctic Falcons (_Hierofalco_), especially those occupying Siberia and Northern America; it seems, however, most probable that three grey forms inhabit the latter and two the former region. In _H. candicans_, the Greenland Falcon, the prevailing colour is white at all ages, transversely marked above and spotted below with blackish; it occurs in North Greenland, Spitsbergen, Arctic Siberia and America, the Commander Islands, and Amur-land. _H. gyrfalco_, the Gyr- or Jer-Falcon[141] of Arctic America, Greenland, Scandinavia, Northern Russia, and possibly North Asia, is like a large Peregrine Falcon, but is greyer above and whiter below; _H. islandus_, the Iceland Falcon, of South Greenland, Iceland, North Siberia, and Arctic America is paler, having the whitish head streaked with dusky. _H. labradorus_, of Labrador, is dark throughout. All these species move southwards towards winter, the first three visiting Britain and the Greenland Falcon even Southern France. They are still valued in Falconry; but, though more powerful, they lack the spirit and dash of the Peregrine Falcon. The food consists of lemmings, grouse, sea-fowl, and the like; the nest of sticks, lined with softer materials, is placed on rocks or trees, and contains three or four whitish eggs mottled or completely covered with yellowish or cinnamon markings.

Fam. V. PANDIONIDAE.–This group is especially remarkable for the reversible outer toe–recalling that of the Owls, the want of an aftershaft, and the long closely-feathered tibiae. The strong short beak is arched and decidedly hooked; the powerful feet are roughly scaled; the toes nearly equal, with no connecting membranes, but with spicules beneath; the claws sharp, curved, and rounded; the wings long; the tail comparatively short. The other structural details are as in the Falconidae. The downy young are dusky, varied with rufous; the lower breast, the abdomen, a central stripe down the back, and several on the head, being white.

_Pandion haliaëtus_, the Osprey or Fish-Hawk, nearly cosmopolitan {181}in range, though local everywhere, and absent from many of the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland, and America south of Brazil, is dark brown above, with the short crest, head, nape, and lower parts white; the crown being streaked with blackish, and a brown band–which becomes in the male a series of spots–crossing the chest. The bill is dusky, the cere and feet are bluish, and the irides yellow. The smaller Australasian _P. leucocephalus_ and the American _P. carolinensis_ barely attain sub-specific rank. A migrant to Britain, this bird formerly bred at Ulleswater, and not uncommonly in Scotland, where two or three pairs still remain. Of old it often occupied rocky islets or ruins in Highland lochs, but the nest is usually placed in other countries on trees or sea-cliffs, and exceptionally on the ground; trees being the favourite site in America, in which country colonies are sometimes formed, consisting of even three hundred pairs. The bulky flattish pile of sticks and turf, lined with moss, grass, or seaweed, is invariably placed near water, and contains three, or rarely four, whitish eggs, beautifully blotched or overspread with dark brown, crimson, or claret-colour, varied with orange, buff or grey, New World specimens being usually duller. Surface-swimming fish form the food, and magnificent indeed is the spectacle when an Osprey, after poising itself vertically aloft, descends with terrific dash and splashing plunge to rise again with its captured prey grasped in its roughened toes. The graceful flight is varied by many evolutions and spiral ascents, while the loud piercing scream is chiefly heard at the nesting-quarters.

Of fossil Falconine forms, excluding existing species, _Lithornis vulturinus_ is found in the London Clay (Lower Eocene); from the Upper Eocene of France comes _Palaeocercus cuvieri_ and _Falco_–the former possibly from England also; from the Lower Miocene of France _Teracus littoralis_, _Palaeohierax gervaisi_, _Aquila_, _Buteo_, and _Milvus_; from its Middle Miocene _Haliaëtus_ and _Aquila_. _Aquila_ also occurs in the American Pliocene of Nebraska and Oregon; _Falco_ in the Italian; from the drifts of Queensland we have _Necrastur alacer_ and _Taphaëtus branchialis_; from the Argentine Pampean of Lujan and the Post-Pampean of Monte Hermoso respectively _Asthenopterus minutus_ and _Foetopterus ambiguus_; while the superficial deposits and swamps of New Zealand furnish a sub-fossil _Circus_ and the giant _Harpagornis moorii_; and the Mare aux Songes of Mauritius _Astur alphonsi_.

{182}CHAPTER V

NEORNITHES CARINATAE _CONTINUED_

BRIGADE II–LEGION I (ALECTOROMORPHAE). ORDERS: TINAMIFORMES–GALLIFORMES– GRUIFORMES–CHARADRIIFORMES

ORDER VIII. TINAMIFORMES.

The primitive Neotropical Order Tinamiformes, with the Sub-Order TINAMI, and sole Family TINAMIDAE or CRYPTURIDAE, is classed here in accordance with Dr. Gadow's carefully-weighed decision;[142] yet the position must not be considered absolutely certain, most systematists placing it near the Ratitae. The complete fusion of vomer and palatine bones is unique among Birds, though partially noticeable in _Dromaeus_ and _Apteryx_; the conformation of the skull, the single head of the quadrate, the separation of the ischium and ilium, the absence of a pygostyle, the reduced tongue, the functionless tail, the gait and bearing are Struthionine features; but other points of structure, the pterylosis and the habits generally, are Galline.

The furcula is U-shaped; the sternum long and slender with well-developed keel; the head small; the neck thin and elongated with short plumage; the beak fairly strong, varying in length, and composed of more than one piece, the culmen being flattened and usually arched; the moderate metatarsus is transversely or hexagonally scutellated, and may be rough or smooth behind, while the hallux–wanting in _Calopezus_ and _Tinamotis_–is elevated, and the anterior toes are long or short, with moderate claws. The short wings are concave and rounded, with ten primaries and from thirteen to sixteen secondaries; the {183}abbreviated tail possesses ten very weak feathers, hidden by the coverts in _Tinamus_, _Nothocercus_, and _Crypturus_, and hardly distinguishable from them in _Rhynchotus_, _Nothoprocta_, and _Nothura_, the coverts themselves almost forming a train in the male of _Taoniscus_. _Calodromas_ has twelve rectrices. The tongue is small and triangular, the crop is large and globular, the after-shaft is rudimentary or wanting; powder-down feathers occur near the rump, and the down of the adults is sparing, while that of the nestlings, which run from the shell, is simple, as in Ratite birds, and of a buffish-brown or chestnut colour, often relieved by black markings and white streaks.

Like Partridges in appearance, and varying from the size of a large Fowl to that of a Quail, Tinamous are essentially ground-birds, and rarely perch, some species being solitary and others forming coveys; they haunt the undergrowth of thick forests, dry bushy and grassy flats, or–exceptionally–rocky mountains. The flight is strong and extremely swift, accompanied by quick vibrations of the wings, occasionally varied by a gliding motion; so reckless moreover is the pace that individuals are frequently killed by striking against the first obstacle they meet on rising. To flush them, however, is often a vain attempt, as they run with amazing rapidity, and are readily concealed by the surrounding vegetation. The voice–a trill or mellow whistle of several notes–differs somewhat according to the species, and may be heard even in winter; the food consists of seeds, berries, roots, bulbs, spiders, insects and their larvae, maize- and potato-crops being at times seriously damaged. A hole is scraped under shelter of a tussock or bush, and scantily lined with dry leaves or herbage, to receive the eggs, deposited in some districts almost throughout the year; these are oval, and so wonderfully burnished as to be totally unlike those of any other bird. They vary, according to the species, from reddish-chocolate, wine-purple, or liver-colour to dark blue, bluish-green or primrose, and number from four or five to sixteen; though the smaller figures are perhaps the most reliable, as larger sets, though not uncommon, may be the produce of more than one hen. As in the Turnicidae, and to some extent in the Ratitae, the male alone incubates, sitting about three weeks, and feigning disablement to decoy intruders from the nest. The flesh is very delicate, and good sport may be had with some species near the holes where they daily dust themselves.

{184}As will be seen from the following examples, the general coloration is rufous or slaty-brown, which may be relieved by buff, or barred with blackish above and even below; the under parts being often greyer, with whitish throat and belly. The sexes do not differ greatly, but the female is, if anything, the larger bird. Some six forms occur in Mexico, while of the remainder _Tinamotis ingoufi_ extends the range to Southern Patagonia.

The genus _Tinamus_ has ten members, _T. tao_, of South America north of Bolivia and Brazil, being greyish-olive, with slaty breast and buff abdomen, wavy blackish markings on both surfaces, black primaries, black head and neck with white spots and bands on the sides, and still whiter throat. Of the thirty or more species of _Crypturus_, _C. tataupa_, extending from Peru and Bolivia to Brazil and Argentina, is plain chestnut-brown, with blackish crown, grey cheeks, neck, and breast, whitish throat and belly, buffish flanks with black crescentic bars, red beak, and pinkish feet. It haunts dense undergrowth in forests, even near habitations, and frequently sits bent forward with its "tail" expanded over its back; its melody consists of several notes at diminishing intervals, merging into a hurried trill, which is terminated by a reiterated sound like chororó; its eggs are of a reddish chocolate-colour. _Rhynchotus rufescens_ of the same countries except Peru, the "Perdiz grande" of Argentina, which is represented in Bolivia by the similar _R. maculicollis_, is grey-brown, with blacker crown, rufous cheeks, neck, and breast, and chestnut primaries; the back being barred with whitish and black, and the flanks with brown and white. This somewhat solitary bird threads {185}the tall grasses of the Pampas like a Rail, and, if unable to escape by squatting or running, will fly for some thousand yards, and thrice repeat the effort before becoming exhausted, the rapid whirring of the pinions sounding like a vehicle driven quickly over stones. The song, as it may almost be called, consists of five or six flute-like notes, several individuals sometimes joining in chorus towards evening, when they are decidedly active. The eggs, which are dark purple, have been hatched in confinement, and attempts at naturalization have been made in Essex and Herts. _Nothoprocta_ contains eight members, _N. pentlandi_ of the Bolivian and Argentine Andes having the crown and back grey, barred with black and buff, and streaked with white, the remiges blackish and buff, the cheeks and breast grey, the throat, mid-abdomen and pectoral spots whitish, the flanks grey, black and white. Its powers of flying and running are comparatively small, and it will remain stationary for hours among stones or bushes in ravines, escaping observation by its dull hue. The note is a full-toned whistle; the food consists of seeds, fruits, and insects; the eggs are reddish-brown. Of seven species of _Nothura_, _N. maculosa_, the "Perdiz comun," found from South Brazil to Argentina, is yellowish-brown above, barred with black and streaked with whitish, the throat being white, the wings marked with fulvous, and the lower parts rusty with brown breast-spots and curved flank-bands. It is a fearless, solitary, and somewhat sluggish denizen of grassy plains, which does not avoid habitations, and may be knocked down with a whip or stone, feigning death when captured; the note resembles that of _Crypturus tataupa_ without the final intonation; the eggs are wine-purple or liver-coloured. _N. darwini_, the shy "Perdiz chico" of Patagonia, is greyer. _Calodromas_ (_Calopezus_) _elegans_, the Martineta, ranging from South Uruguay to Patagonia, has a grey and black head and neck with long recurved crest, elevated in excitement, two white bands on each side of the head, rufous and black upper parts, whitish throat and marks on the primaries, and buffish under surface with crescentic black bars and spots. It frequents dry bushy table-lands, often in coveys of twenty or thirty, which run squealing in single file before intruders, and utter, in summer only, a long plaintive whistle, or chorus of notes like those of _Rhynchotus_, but weaker. The flight, accompanied by a wailing sound, is broken by intervals of gliding; the four to sixteen eggs are deep green or yellowish. {186}The remaining genera are _Nothocercus_ with five, _Taoniscus_ with one, and _Tinamotis_ with two species.

ORDER IX. GALLIFORMES.

The Galliformes, or Gallinaceous Birds, constitute a large and fairly homogeneous Order, situated between the Tinamiformes and the Gruiformes, if we assume the former to be classified in accordance with the views of Dr. Gadow, and not to be placed nearer to the Ratitae; the Gruiformes again linking themselves to the Laro-Limicoline section of the Charadriiformes, and so forth. _Opisthocomus_, however, though decidedly Galline, shows considerable resemblance to the Cuckoo-tribe.[143] The present Order may be divided into the Sub-Orders MESITAE, with the Family _Mesitidae_; TURNICES, with the _Turnicidae_ or Button-Quails, and the _Pedionomidae_; GALLI, with the _Megapodiidae_ or Mound-builders, the _Cracidae_ or Curassows, and the _Phasianidae_ or Game-birds, Fowls, and the like; and finally OPISTHOCOMI, with the Family _Opisthocomidae_, containing but one species, the exceptionally curious Hoatzin. Among the _Galli_, the _Megapodiidae_ and _Cracidae_ together compose Professor Huxley's group of Peristeropodes or Pigeon-footed forms, where all the toes are in one plane; the _Phasianidae_ standing alone in his Alectoropodes, or Fowl-footed division, where the hallux is elevated above its fellows.

Excluding _Mesites_, of which comparatively little is known, all the members of the Order agree in having a more or less globular crop, and a somewhat scanty supply of down in the adults, with a more uniform coating in the young, which becomes thinner in _Opisthocomus_; they may be distinguished from the Gruiformes, except _Rhinochetus_, by their impervious nostrils, while the Tinamiformes differ in the compound structure of their bills, the primitive sternum, and the invariably weak rectrices.

Sub-Order MESITAE. Fam. I. MESITIDAE.–This consists of a single genus, _Mesites_, from Madagascar, originally referred by Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire to the neighbourhood of the Pigeons, and by subsequent writers to that of the Passerine, Ardeine, or Ralline birds.[144] W. A. Forbes[145] classed it next to _Eurypyga_ and {187}_Rhinochetus_; but Dr. Gadow, as may be seen from above, places it in the Galliformes, considering it to be a connecting link between that Order, the Tinamiformes, and the Gruiformes.

In this curious form the bill is long and slender; the legs are rather weak, with the uniformly scutellated metatarsus shorter than the partially bare tibia; while the toes, which are without webs, are on the same level. The keel of the sternum is short, the anterior extremity hardly reaching beyond the middle of the breast-bone, and the clavicles are quite rudimentary. The wing is rounded, and has ten primaries and six secondaries; the tail is strong and well-developed, with fourteen (or sixteen) rectrices. Mr. E. Bartlett tells us that the quills of the soft feathers of the back and rump are so delicate that the plumage curls forward immediately upon the bird's death.[146] The after-shaft is absent, the pervious nostrils are long and linear, the lores and bluish orbits are naked. No less than five pairs of powder-down patches have been ascertained to exist, of which two couples are dorsal, one adjoins the upper pectoral muscles, and two are ventral. _M. variegatus_ is cinnamon, with black and tawny markings, the lower parts being white with black spots and reddish flanks. The female is mostly rufous below. _M. unicolor_ is not distinct. Hardly anything is known of the habits, but the nest is said to be upon the ground.

Sub-Order TURNICES.–This consists of the two Families, _Turnicidae_ and _Pedionomidae_, each with one genus, _Turnix_ or _Hemipodius_, and _Pedionomus_ respectively; the last-named, moreover, has but one species. _Ortyxelus meiffreni_ (p. 295), may belong here.

Fam. II. TURNICIDAE.–In this group the bill is short, but commonly less stout than that of the _Phasianidae_, which it otherwise resembles; the metatarsus is long, slender, and scutellated, the hallux is absent, the claws are small, curved, and sharp. The wings are broad and rather short, with ten primaries and about fifteen secondaries; the abbreviated tail contains twelve soft rectrices, which are not so long as the upper coverts in _Turnix ocellata_, while in _T. sylvatica_ and several nearly-allied species the median feathers are somewhat elongated and acute. The furcula is U-shaped, and the crop is almost absent, but an after-shaft is present; the pointed tongue, the impervious nostrils, and the tracheo-bronchial syrinx calling for no special remark. Where the sexes {188}differ, the female is almost always the larger and brighter-plumaged bird, the colours being black, brown, buff, chestnut, and white in varying admixture, and becoming less distinct with age.

These small, solitary, and non-migratory forms often escape observation through their shyness, as they run strongly, and are flushed with the greatest difficulty, dropping quickly into cover after a short awkward flight; they frequent dry, grassy plains and localities covered with low trees or dense bushes, and utter a pleasant ringing or triple grating cry, with a mournful call-note at dawn and sunset.[147] The food consists of seeds and insect-larvae; the well-concealed nest is little more than a hole lined with dry grass, though sometimes domed with similar materials; the three to five eggs, shaped somewhat like peg-tops, are buff or greyish, with spots of pale grey, purplish, or dark brown. Two broods are raised in a season, and it is a noticeable fact that the comparatively dull-hued male performs all, or nearly all, the duties of incubation, sitting very closely, and feigning lameness when surprised with the young, which run from the shell. The adults frequently fight, but the sex of the combatants is uncertain.

The genus _Turnix_ includes some twenty "Hemipodes," the Bustard- or Button-Quails of Anglo-Indians, which range from South Europe, Arabia, and Africa to India, China, the Liu-Kiu Islands, and Formosa, as well as to Australia, New Britain, and New Caledonia. The female is described below, unless otherwise stated. _T. taigoor_, reaching from India, Ceylon, and the Malay Peninsula to the Liu-Kiu Islands and Formosa, is brown above, with black bars and vermiculations, and buff margins to many of the feathers; the forehead and sides of the head and neck are white spotted with black, the mid-throat and chest are black, a whitish stripe divides the crown, and the under parts are buff, banded with black on the sides of the chest and on the breast. The whole chest is barred in the male, the centre of the throat being white. Darker birds apparently inhabit wetter districts.[148] _T. pugnax_ of Ceylon and the Great Sunda Islands is a rufous-naped race. _T. fasciata_, with a rufous collar, but grey and black upper surface, inhabits the Philippines and Paláwan; _T. rufilata_, of Celebes, has the throat barred with black, {189}and a rufous vent-region, _T. powelli_ of the Lesser Sunda Islands being similar. The males lack the rufous collar and barred throat. _T. sylvatica_, of South Europe and Africa generally, has in both sexes dull reddish upper parts, barred with black and relieved by white, grey, and buff, which cause a scaly appearance; the browner wings shew white spots, the centre of the crown and throat are white, the sides of the head, neck, and breast whitish with black spots, the mid-chest and abdomen ruddy and buff respectively. _T. dussumieri_, the smallest species known, occurring in India, Pegu, Hainan, and Formosa, differs in the wide yellowish margins of the scapulars, a feature found also in the blacker _T. nana_ and _T. hottentotta_ of Africa, wherein the sides are barred. The former ranges from lat. 10° S. to the Great Karroo, and the latter southward of that district. _T. blanfordi_ is found east of the Bay of Bengal to Siam and Manchuria, _T. tanki_ in India and eastward to Tipperah, _T. albiventris_ in the Andamans and Nicobars; all being greyish above varied with black, and having the nape rufous in the female only. _T. maculosa_ of Celebes, Southern New Guinea, and Australia, and _T. saturata_ of New Britain and the Duke of York group are similar, but exhibit yellow-edged scapulars; the latter possessing no rusty collar, but having a white throat in the male. _T. ocellata_ of Luzon is a large greenish-brown species vermiculated with black; in which the neck and breast are bright ruddy, the crown is blackish banded with white, the throat and cheeks are chiefly black, and the wing-coverts show black ocelli with whitish margins. The male has the middle of the throat white and no rufous collar. _T. nigricollis_ of Madagascar is grey, black, reddish, and buff above, with much black and white on the head; and is uniform grey below, with black mid-throat and more or less ruddy sides. The throat is white in the male. The female of _T. melanogaster_ of East Australia has both throat and breast black, with white markings on the latter, the male reversing the colours. Other Australian forms are _T. varia_, with chestnut nuchal collar, black, white, and rufous upper, and grey and buff under parts; _T. castanonota_, with vinous red upper surface; _T. pyrrhothorax_, chiefly greyish above and rusty buff below; and _T. velox_, reddish-chestnut in colour with nearly white lower parts. In these four the sexes are alike. _T. leucogaster_ inhabits Central Australia.

Fam. III. PEDIONOMIDAE.–_Pedionomus torquatus_ differs in {190}structure from _Turnix_ by the presence of a small hind-toe. The lax upper plumage is, in the female, reddish-brown with black barring and buff margins to the feathers, the lower parts being pale buff marked with black. A broad white collar spotted with black surrounds the neck, while a rust-coloured nape and chest distinguish the above sex from the male, where the collar is brown and buff. This curious bird, somewhat smaller than a Quail, inhabits grassy plains in Southern and Eastern Australia, preferring the wilder districts. The habits are much as in _Turnix_, but the nest seems never to be domed, the four eggs being of a light stone-colour, thickly freckled and blotched with brown and grey.

Fam. IV. MEGAPODIIDAE.–The Megapodes, or Mound-builders, commence the section Peristeropodes (p. 186) of the Sub-Order GALLI. The bill is short, stout, and arched, though rather slender in _Megapodius_; the feet are exceptionally strong, and enormous for the size of the birds, _Lipoa_ having the smallest; while the metatarsi are usually scutellated, but are reticulated anteriorly in _Megacephalon_, which has comparatively short and blunt claws. The abbreviated wings have ten primaries and some six secondaries. The tail is long and rounded in _Talegallus_ and _Lipoa_, with upper coverts extending to the tip in the latter; it is short but still rounded in _Megapodius_; long and obcordate when expanded in _Catheturus_, _Aepypodius_, and _Megacephalon_. The rectrices number twelve in _Megapodius_, sixteen in _Lipoa_, {191}_Talegallus_, and _Aepypodius_, eighteen in _Megacephalon_ and _Catheturus_. _Aepypodius_ possesses an erect fleshy frontal crest and a pendent caruncle at the base of the fore-neck, or even a pair of lateral outgrowths near the nape; _Catheturus_ has a vascular neck-wattle: and _Megacephalon_ a rounded bony casque with a tubercle behind each nostril. The fleshy growths are yellow or reddish, the horny black. In _Aepypodius_, _Catheturus_, and _Megacephalon_ the naked head is clothed with hair-like feathers or papillae; _Lipoa_ and some species of _Megapodius_ have a short dense crest; others have the head almost entirely feathered, others again nearly bare except the occipital and nuchal region, as in _Talegallus_. The naked skin may be red, yellow, orange, purplish, grey, or pale blue; the bill and feet are black, brown, olive, yellow, red, orange, horn- or parti-coloured. The furcula is Y-shaped, the syrinx tracheo-bronchial, the tongue sagittate, the gizzard muscular, and the aftershaft small. The size varies from that of a Turkey to that of a large Pigeon, the sexes being invariably similar.

Megapodes are shy terrestrial birds found in hill-valleys, among thickets near rivers or the sea, or on gravelly and sandy beaches. Upon the ground their gait is not ungraceful, while they run well, and only take to the wing when hard pressed; if disturbed they usually seek the lowest branches of the neighbouring trees, hopping gradually to the higher limbs; the flight is heavy, but can carry them from island to island. Always difficult of observation they are rarely seen in company, yet the larger breeding mounds are no doubt used by more pairs than one. Hoarse croaks or clucks are uttered in the day-time, mewing notes or noisy cackles at night; the food consists of fallen fruit, seeds, berries, worms, snails, insects, and even crabs. The brownish-red, salmon-coloured or whitish eggs, at least as large as those of the domestic duck, are deposited either in mounds constructed of soil and vegetable matter, or in holes made in sandy or shingly ground; the decaying vegetation or the sun's heat producing the effect of an artificial incubator, and making parental aid needless. The young extricate themselves readily from the superincumbent soil, being hatched in a feathered condition, and flying almost immediately. The flesh is dark and usually unpalatable.

Though mainly confined to the Australian Region, where it extends eastwards to Ninafou and Samoa, the Family reaches westward to the Nicobars, and northward to the Philippines and {192}Ladrones, replacing the Pheasants within these limits–save for the Philippines–just as the Cracidae do in Neotropical countries. No species is yet recorded from Sumatra or Java, and confirmation is needed in the case of the main island of Borneo.

_Megacephalon maleo_ of North Celebes and the Sanghir Islands is glossy blackish-brown, with salmon-pink breast and belly, a vaulted tail, a black casque of cellular tissue, and dusky bill and feet. The Maleo, as it is called, inhabits hilly country, but resorts in hundreds to sloping gravelly beaches to breed, holes being scratched or dug just above high-water mark, some four or five feet in diameter. In these from two to eight pale brownish-red eggs are laid, about six inches apart–at intervals, it is said, of a fortnight or so–several females occasionally using one cavity.

_Aepypodius bruijni_ of Waigiou is brownish-black, with chestnut rump and breast, dusky bill and feet; a fleshy papillose crest adorns the head, and three wattles–one median and two lateral–occur on the neck, all probably red in life. _Ae. arfakianus_ of New Guinea is black above and brownish below, with no lateral wattles.

_Catheturus lathami_, the "Brush Turkey" of Eastern Australia, is blackish-brown with greyish under surface, shewing conspicuous light margins to the feathers. It has a bright yellow neck-wattle, reddish head and neck, black bill and brown feet. This species forms mounds of earth and decayed leaves, sometimes as much as six feet high and fourteen feet in diameter at the base, and covers the coarse outer layers with fresh leaves and sticks. The central portion is hollowed out like a cup, successive layers of eggs being deposited from the circumference inwards in concentric circles, and the earth gradually filled in above them. Several females sometimes utilize the same mound, each being said to lay an egg every second day. These eggs, placed with the small end downwards, number from twenty to nearly forty, and are of a long pointed oval shape and of a white colour with minute granulations. The site is usually a level clearing among scrub, whither the materials are conveyed by being repeatedly thrown backwards by the feet, while the cock possibly assists in building.[149] _Talegallus cuvieri_, of Western New Guinea, Salwatti, Mysol and Gilolo, is black with whitish throat; the naked parts are red-brown, the bill and feet {193}reddish-orange and yellow respectively. _T. fuscirostris_, of South and East New Guinea, with the Aru Islands, differs in its grey-black bare areas and brown bill; _T. jobiensis_, of Jobi Island and East New Guinea, has the bill, feet, and naked skin red. The habits resemble those of _Catheturus_: the mounds, which reach an internal temperature of 93° F., are sometimes eleven feet high; the eggs are reddish with a chalky incrustation.

_Lipoa ocellata_, the Native Pheasant or Mallee Hen of South and West Australia, has grey and brown upper parts, with black, buff, and white markings, which form eyes on the wings and back. The breast is grey with a median black and white line, the remaining lower parts being whitish with a rufous tinge. The naked parts are pale blue, the bill and feet brown. This bird frequents both open parts of the "brushes" and dense thickets, while in manners it differs but little from the members of the last two genera. The mounds–usually in close proximity–are, however, smaller as a rule, and are stated to be used by single hens, a fact no doubt true in many cases. The six to eight eggs, which are pinkish-white, but become red-brown in a few days, are very fragile, as in other Megapodes. The natives say that an egg is {194}deposited daily, the discrepancy between _Lipoa_ and _Megacephalon_ being in this respect very remarkable, but conflicting assertions are only what may be expected where several females lay together, and further investigation should easily decide the question.

The genus _Megapodius_ contains some fifteen species, about the size of a small fowl, in which the coloration varies from olive or chestnut-brown to blackish or grey above, and from red-brown to pale or dark-grey below, the bill being reddish, greenish, or yellowish, and the feet black, red, orange, yellow, or horn-coloured. _M. pritchardi_, of Ninafou, alone has white bases to the primaries, and _M. wallacii_, of the Moluccas, exhibits bright chestnut bands on the upper surface. _M. duperreyi_ (_tumulus_), which ranges from the Kangeang Islands and Lombok to New Guinea and North-East Australia, fashions mounds, occasionally ten feet high, in dense scrub, laying pale coffee-coloured eggs in long burrows bored laterally, and not in symmetrical circles, as does _Catheturus_. _M. layardi_, of the New Hebrides, frequents damp wooded ravines, and is said to deposit its red-brown eggs among leaves in hollows. _M. cumingi_, found from the islands north of Borneo and Paláwan to the Philippines and Celebes, builds mounds of sand, leaves, and so forth, near the sea, the chalky eggs having a salmon hue. _M. eremita_, extending from the Solomon Islands almost to New Guinea, buries its eggs a couple of feet deep in open sandy spots, kept clear and fenced into allotments by the natives in Savo and Guadalcanar; while _M. nicobariensis_, of the Nicobars, appears to flock more than other Megapodes, and to lay its eggs at long intervals. _M. tenimberensis_, of the Tenimber Islands, _M. sanghirensis_ of the Sanghir group, _M. bernsteini_ of the Sula Islands, _M. forsteni_ and _M. freycineti_, ranging from the Moluccas to Western or even Northern New Guinea, _M. macgillivrayi_ of the Louisiade and D'Entrecasteaux Archipelagos and Eastern New Guinea, _M. geelvinkianus_, of the west of the latter with its islands, and _M. laperousii_, of the Pelew and Ladrone groups, are like their congeners in habits and appearance. _Chosornis praeteritus_ is an extinct form from Queensland.

Fam. V. CRACIDAE.–These birds are almost identical in structure with the _Megapodiidae_, though sharply contrasted in their arboreal habits and their style of breeding. They may be divided into the Sub-families (1) _Cracinae_ or Curassows, (2) _Penelopinae_ or Guans, and (3) _Oreophasinae_. Of the first of these, where the maxilla is higher than it is broad, the genus _Crax_ has a soft {195}cere, and nostrils in the middle of the bill, with the addition in many cases of frontal excrescences and wattles; _Nothocrax_, _Pauxis_ and _Mitua_ have the beak horny and the nostrils basal, _Pauxis_, moreover, being distinguished by a large knob on the forehead, and _Mitua_ by its short, highly-compressed bill with swollen culmen. The remaining Sub-families have the maxilla depressed and broader than it is high; _Penelope_, _Penelopina_ and _Pipile_ exhibit bare throats with a median wattle, _Ortalis_ a mere band of bristly-shafted feathers down the middle, and _Aburria_ a feathered throat and vermiform wattle, while _Chamaepetes_ shews neither wattle nor bare skin, and _Oreophasis_, the sole tenant of the _Oreophasinae_, a naked crown, surmounted by a cylindrical helmet. The males of _Crax_, _Pauxis_, and _Mitua_, and both sexes of _Penelope jacucaca_, have the trachea looped, and sometimes extended to the posterior end of the keel of the sternum; other forms lack the convolutions, but in several the state is unknown.

The range covers Central and South America, excluding the Greater Antilles, Chili and Patagonia, but one species (_Ortalis vetula_) even reaches as far north as Texas.

These handsome birds, from three feet to a foot and a half in length, frequent forests near the coast or wooded ravines on rivers, attaining at times an elevation of several thousand feet. They are often tame and show great curiosity, _Ortalis_ being commonly gregarious and pugnacious; some forms, moreover, rarely seek the ground and are only to be seen perched among the branches, but others haunt the undergrowth in the mid-day heat, and _Nothocrax_ is asserted to take refuge occasionally in hollow trees. The food consists of leaves and fruit, ordinarily procured in the morning or evening, while various species scratch among the débris like Pheasants. The flight is generally heavy and rapid, _Chamaepetes_ in particular descending with a noisy rush and stiffened wings; the alarm-note is loud and harsh, and in _Penelope_ cackling, but the more usual triple cry is clear and ringing, while _Ortalis_ utters a softer call, and vociferates in rattling chorus. The carelessly-constructed nest of twigs, grass, moss, and leaves is of considerable size, and is placed on the horizontal branch of a tree, in a bush, or on a stump, the two to five eggs–smaller than those of a hen–being white, with a hard granulated shell. The young soon climb and hop about the boughs like the adults, of which the flesh is considered a delicacy. Several species are {196}readily domesticated, but rarely breed in confinement. Hybrids with domestic fowls have been recorded. Except where mentioned below the sexes are alike.

Sub-fam. 1. _Cracinae._–_Crax alector_ is black with a purplish gloss, the belly being white, the naked lores and orbits black, the cere and base of the bill yellow, the tip bluish, and the feet horn-coloured. Throughout the whole genus, which is Central and South American, the female has a curly crest barred with white. The remaining nine species differ in being greenish-black, and–except _C. fasciolata_–have a frontal knob, with or without a basal wattle on each side of the mandible, the colour of these parts varying from scarlet or yellow to pale blue or purplish-black. The tail may be tipped with white; the females often exhibit white barring above, and have the plumage relieved by buff and chestnut. _Nothocrax urumutum_, ranging from British Guiana to the Upper Amazons, is chiefly chestnut above vermiculated with black, and cinnamon below; the wings and tail being blackish with buff markings, the throat chestnut, the long crest black, the naked lores and orbits yellow and purplish, the bill scarlet, the feet flesh-coloured. The female has the lower parts mottled with dusky. _Mitua mitu_ of British Guiana, Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia is blue-black, with chestnut {197}belly, white-tipped tail, red bill and feet; the crest being well-developed. _M. tomentosa_, of the first two countries only, has a shorter crest and chestnut-tipped tail, whereas _M. salvini_ of Ecuador has a white belly. _Pauxis galeata_, the Cashew-bird, inhabiting Venezuela, Colombia, and Peru, is glossy greenish-black with white abdomen and tip to the tail; the frontal knob, supposed to resemble a Cashew nut, being dull blue. The female shows a large admixture of chestnut and buff.

Sub-fam. 2. _Penelopinae._–The fifteen species of _Penelope_ are brown or olive-green, more or less varied with chestnut and rufous, or washed with purple or bronze; the feathers, moreover, have often whitish margins, the head in _P. pileata_, and the outer primaries in _P. albipennis_ becoming almost white. The wattled throat is generally feathered in _P._ (_Stegnolaema_) _montagnii_, but naked elsewhere, the colour being given as carmine in _P. cristata_, where the feet are red. The orbits are also bare, the crest is moderate, and the metatarsus in some cases is partly feathered. Two members of the genus inhabit Central America. _P. obscura_, the Pavo del Monte, alone reaches Northern Argentina, where _Crax fasciolata_, _Pipile cumanensis_, and _Ortalis canicollis_, the Charata, also represent the Family. _Penelopina nigra_, of the Guatemalan highlands, is greenish-black, barred and mottled with brown and buff in the female; the naked orbits are purplish, the bare throat, large wattle, bill and feet red. _Ortalis_ contains about seventeen forms, some hardly worthy of specific rank, of which five occur from South to Central America and one–_O. vetula_, the Chiacalaca–extends to Texas. _O. ruficauda_ is found in Tobago and the Grenadines. The coloration is brown or olive, with little or no metallic gloss, but relieved by chestnut, rufous and grey; the breast and belly being occasionally white or buff, the naked orbits and sides of the throat apparently reddish, and the feet pinkish, grey, or blue. _Pipile cumanensis_, of South America northwards from Bolivia and Brazil, with Trinidad, is greenish-black; a white crest of pointed feathers reaches the sides of the neck, some white shews on the wings and chest; the cere, naked orbits, lores, throat and wattle are blue, the feet red. _P. jacutinga_ of South-East Brazil and Paraguay has a purplish gloss above, and a red wattle; _P. cujubi_ of the Lower Amazons a brown crest margined with white. _Aburria carunculata_ of Colombia and Ecuador is greenish-black, with a scantily-feathered throat and long thin wattle. _Chamaepetes {198}goudoti_, of the same countries and Peru, is bronzy-brown with greyish head and rufous under parts; the Costa Rican and Veraguan _C. unicolor_ being nearly uniform greenish-black. In both these genera the orbits are more or less naked.

Sub-fam. 3. _Oreophasinae._–_Oreophasis derbianus_, the splendid Faisan of the Volcan de Fuego in Guatemala, is greenish-black with dense velvety plumage extending from the forehead to the nostrils; the white lower parts become brownish at the sides and vent, and shew dark streaks; a white band crosses the tail; and a red cellular casque covered with hair-like feathers surmounts the head. The bill is pale yellow, the feet are vermilion.

Fam. VI. PHASIANIDAE.–Of really distinct Sub-families this group may be said to possess three, (1) the _Numidinae_, or Guinea-fowls, (2) the _Meleagrinae_, or Turkeys, and (3) the _Phasianinae_, or Pheasants, Partridges, and Grouse; it is, however, customary to class the Grouse apart as _Tetraoninae_, though a difficulty at once arises in drawing the line of demarcation. For example, Huxley[150] considered _Caccabis_, _Francolinus_ and _Coturnix_ Galline, _i.e._ Phasianine; Dr. Gadow[151] makes them Tetraonine; while Mr. Ogilvie Grant[152] agrees with the former, but does not make these genera the link between the sections. Mr. Grant's view may be conveniently followed, but the division is in any case arbitrary. As a matter of further convenience a Partridge group (_Perdicinae_) may be formed, and the "American Partridges" may stand apart as _Odontophorinae_.

Passing mention should be made of the economical importance of this Family as a factor in our food-supply, whether in the wild state as game, or in the domesticated as poultry; for almost inconceivable numbers of birds are bred, exported, or used for eating in their native countries, while the value of domestic fowls' eggs can best be estimated by imagining the consequence of a failure in the production. Man's custom herein is no doubt guided by the ease with which most of the species are secured or reared, and by the great development of the pectoral muscles or "flesh of the breast."

The body is decidedly heavy, the head usually rather small, and the neck fairly long. The bill is comparatively short and stout–especially in _Ithagenes_, _Dendrortyx_, and elsewhere–but may be more elongated, as in _Lophophorus_ and _Euplocamus_; the maxilla {199}being curved, and overhanging the mandible, which exhibits two serrations on each side in the Odontophorinae. The metatarsus is strong and relatively short in Grouse and many Partridges, but in Pheasants and similar forms it is much longer; the feathering descends to the toes in the Tetraoninae, except _Bonasa_ and _Tetrastes_, the digits themselves being clothed in _Lagopus_, naked and pectinate at the sides in the remaining genera. No other members of the Family shew pectinations or have the metatarsus feathered, save _Lerwa_, where it is half covered. The hallux, invariably elevated, has only a rudimentary claw in _Rollulus_, _Melanoperdix_, and _Caloperdix_; _Arboricola_, _Dactylortyx_, and _Cyrtonyx_, on the contrary, have particularly long and somewhat straight claws. Spurs are of frequent occurrence on the feet of the males, though rare in the females, some species possessing as many as three pairs; they are never found in the Tetraoninae or Odontophorinae, and are represented by mere knobs in _Acryllium_ (Numidinae). The wings are short and rounded, with ten primaries and from twelve to nineteen secondaries, both decreasing in length as they near the middle of the wing, which has thus a bilobed appearance when expanded. The primaries usually increase in length before decreasing, but in some cases the exterior quill is the longest, while in _Falcipennis_ two or three of the outer feathers are sickle-shaped, and in _Argus_ the secondaries are enormously developed. The tail is extremely variable, being long and rounded in _Lophophorus_; long and sharp-pointed in _Phasianus_ and _Centrocercus_; moderate, broad, and rounded in _Lagopus_, _Odontophorus_, and so forth; similar but more truncated in _Meleagris_; short in most Partridges; and exceptionally abbreviated in many Quails. The coverts far exceed the tail in the Peacock, forming its splendid train, while they are much elongated in _Chrysolophus_, and to some extent in _Coturnix_, _Excalphatoria_, and _Ceriornis_ (_Tragopan_). In _Pedioecetes_ the two middle rectrices surpass the rest and terminate abruptly; in _Lyrurus_ the exterior feathers fork outwards; in _Crossoptilon_ and _Gennaeus_ the median plumes curve over the others; and in _Lobiophasis_ not only is this the case, but the rhachis extends beyond the webs, which are much reduced on the outer side of the lateral quills; in _Argusianus_ and _Rheinardtius_ the middle pair is extraordinarily lengthened. The whole tail is compressed or "vaulted" to a greater or less degree in _Gallus_, _Chrysolophus_, _Lophura_, _Acomus_, _Gennaeus_ {200}and _Crossoptilon_. _Excalphatoria_ is remarkable for possessing only eight rectrices; ten are found in _Microperdix_, and occasionally in _Synoecus_ and _Coturnix_; but the usual number is from twelve to twenty-four, while _Lobiophasis_ has thirty-two in the male and twenty-eight in the female. The nostrils are concealed by the feathering in the Tetraoninae alone, the aftershaft is large except in _Pavo_, the furcula is Y-shaped, the tongue sagittate, the syrinx tracheo-bronchial. The globular crop and muscular gizzard are decidedly characteristic, yet _Argusianus_ has been said to lack the former, and _Centrocercus_ the latter. In the male of _Tetrao urogallus_ and both sexes of _Guttera_ the trachea has a loop, which in the latter case passes through a cavity in the head of the furcula.

The plumage is of the most varied description, the winter coat of _Lagopus_ being commonly white, the males of _Lyrurus_, _Tetrao_, and _Melanoperdix_ nearly black, while the prevailing colours in _Chrysolophus pictus_ are orange and red, in _Gennaeus nycthemerus_ black and white, in _Rollulus_ dull green and maroon, in _Gallus_ orange, red, purple, green, black, and white, in _Phasianus_ metallic green, orange, and brown. In the _Numidinae_ white or bluish spots mark the blackish ground-colour; in the American Grouse black, brown, yellowish-buff and white occur in varying proportions; while the Partridges and Quails exhibit, as a rule, still more sober tints of brown, relieved by dull red or buff. Peacocks, again, show a combination of beautiful metallic blues and greens with copper and buff, rarely found elsewhere in the Family; nor must _Lophophorus_, _Lophura_, _Lobiophasis_, and _Ceriornis_ be left out of consideration. The ocelli or "eyes" on the Peacock's train hardly require mention; _Polyplectron_ has similar adornments on both the tail and the upper parts in the male, on the tail alone in the female; _Argusianus_ on the secondaries and rectrices in the male, _Meleagris ocellata_ on the latter in both sexes. The feathers of the crown are curled in _Crossoptilon_, _Pavo_, and _Lophophorus sclateri_, and fine crests are by no means uncommon; the component plumes being more or less racquet-shaped in _Lophura_ and _Lophortyx_, and in _Pavo cristatus_ consisting of webs at the end of bare shafts. The crests of _Chrysolophus_ and _Gennaeus_ are recumbent, those of _Rollulus_ and _Rheinardtius_ upright; while, among others, the full head-tufts of _Ithagenes_ and most species of _Lophophorus_, with the comparatively short ornaments of _Haematortyx_, _Ceriornis_, and _Callipepla_ are worth notice. _Crossoptilon_, {201}_Pucrasia_, and _Phasianus_ have elongated ear-coverts or feathers behind the ear, the white plumes of the first-named being especially remarkable and common to both sexes; an erectile cape surmounts the nape in _Chrysolophus_; _Meleagris_ has a peculiar patch of long bristles on the breast, _Bonasa_ a ruff on the sides of the neck; _Gallus_ and _Acryllium_ have hackles or lanceolate feathers in various parts, moulted–in the former at least–during the summer. All these decorations are absent or less pronounced in the females, which are, as a rule, dull in colour.

The head is entirely naked in _Meleagris_, and is covered with caruncles, an erectile process hanging from the forehead; a pair of long fleshy horns above the eyes distinguish _Ceriornis_, which has in addition a large wattle on the throat; a comb of similar substance is accompanied by a single median or two pairs of lateral wattles in _Gallus_; while the sides of the face, the orbits, or the fore-neck, are bare in many genera. The male of _Lobiophasis_ has the head nearly naked, with no less than three pairs of wattles; though the female has but one rudimentary pair of the latter, and only the cheeks unfeathered. In all these cases the skin and outgrowths are red or blue. The head and neck are bare in the Numidinae, except for a crest in _Guttera_, a crescentic nuchal band of feathers in _Acryllium_, and a line of plumage down the crown in _Phasidus_; wattles occur at the angles of the gape in _Guttera_ and _Numida_, both these and the naked skin being blue and red throughout the Sub-family, save in _Phasidus_, where the latter is yellow, and in _Agelastes_, where it is red and white. The bony casque of _Numida_ is red or horn-coloured. The Tetraoninae have merely a little red or yellow skin over the eye. In females all the fleshy outgrowths are much smaller or absent, throughout the Family.

Air-sacs of orange skin lie below the side-feathers of the neck in the males of _Centrocercus_, _Dendragapus_, and _Tympanuchus_, and become visible when inflated; they are supposed to produce the booming ventriloquistic sound, uttered in the breeding season. _Bonasa_ has a naked space in a similar position, but its drumming is stated to be caused by the wings. _Pedioecetes_ can hardly be said to have air-sacs, yet it also drums, while the exact nature of the corresponding sounds made by _Tetrao urogallus_ and _Lyrurus tetrix_ is uncertain. The "gobble" of the domestic Turkey is a parallel instance, in so far as it is uttered during excitement.