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borders of the two regions. The genera adopted by Mr. Elliot in his Monograph are the following:

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PAVONINÆ, 4 genera.-Pavo (2 sp.), Himalayas to Ceylon, Siam, to South-west China and Java; Argusianus (4 sp.), Siam, Malay Peninsula, and Borneo (Plate IX. Vol. I. p. 339); Polyplectron (5 sp.), Upper Assam to South-west China and Sumatra ; Crossoptilon (4 sp.), Thibet and North China. (Plate III. Vol. I. p. 226.)

LOPHOPHORINÆ, 4 genera.-Lophophorus (3 sp.), High woody region of Himalayas from Cashmere to West China; Tetraophasis (1 sp.), East Thibet; Ceriornis (5 sp.), Highest woody Himalayas from Cashmere to Bhotan and Western China (Plate VII. Vol. I. p. 331); Pucrasia (3 sp.), Lower and High woody Himalayas from the Hindoo Koosh to North-west China.

PHASIANINÆ, 2 genera.-Phasianus (12 sp.), Western Asia to Japan and Formosa, south to near Canton and Yunan, and the Western Himalayas, north to the Altai Mountains; Thaumalea (3 sp.), North-western China and Mongolia. (Plate III. Vol. I. p. 226.)

EUPLOCAMINE, 2 genera.-Euplocamus (12 sp.), Cashmere, along Southern Himalayas to Siam, South China and Formosa, and to Sumatra and Borneo; Ithaginis (2 sp.), High Himalayas from Nepal to North-west China.

GALLINE, 1 genus.-Gallus (4 sp.), Cashmere to Hainan, Ceylon, Borneo, Java, and eastwards to Celebes and Timor. (Central India, Ceylon, and East Java, have each a distinct species of Jungle-fowl.)

MELEAGRINÆ, 1 genus.-Meleagris (3 sp.), Eastern and Central United States and south to Mexico, Guatemala and Yucatan.

AGELASTINÆ, 2 genera. - Phasidus (1 sp.), West Africa; Agelastes (1 sp.), West Africa.

NUMIDINE, 2 genera.-Acryllium (1 sp.), West Africa; Numida (9 sp.), Ethiopian region, east to Madagascar, south to Natal and Great Fish River.

FAMILY 89.-TURNICIDE. (2 Genera, 24 Species.)

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The Turnicidæ are small Quail-like birds, supposed to have remote affinities with the American Tinamous, and with sufficient distinctive peculiarities to constitute a separate family. They range over the Old World, from Spain all through Africa and Madagascar, and over the whole Oriental region to Formosa, and then north again to Pekin, as well as south-eastward to Australia and Tasmania. The genus Turnix (23 sp.), has the range of the family; Ortyxelos (1 sp.), inhabits Senegal; but the latter genus may not belong to this family.

FAMILY 90.-MEGAPODIIDÆ. (4 Genera, 20 Species.)

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The Megapodiidæ, or Mound-makers and Brush-turkeys, are generally dull-coloured birds of remarkable habits and economy, which have no near allies, but are supposed to have a remote affinity with the South American Curassows. They are highly characteristic of the Australian region, extending into almost every part of it except New Zealand and the remotest Pacific islands, and only sending two species beyond its limits,-a Megapodius in the Philippine Islands and North-west Borneo, and another in the Nicobar Islands, separated by about 1,800 miles from its nearest ally in Lombok. The Philippine species offers little difficulty, for these birds are found on the smallest

islands and sand-banks, and can evidently pass over a few miles of sea with ease; but the Nicobar bird is a very different case, because none of the numerous intervening islands offer a single example of the family. Instead of being a well-marked and clearly differentiated form, as we should expect to find it if its remote and isolated habitat were due to natural causes, it so nearly resembles some of the closely-allied species of the Moluccas and New Guinea, that, had it been found with them, it would hardly have been thought specifically extinct. I therefore believe that it is probably an introduction by the Malays, and that, owing to the absence of enemies and general suitability of conditions, it has thriven in the islands and has become slightly differentiated in colour from the parent stock. The following is the distribution of the genera at present known:

Talegallus (2 sp.), New Guinea and East Australia; Megacephalon (1 sp.), East Celebes; Lipoa (1 sp.), South Australia; Megapodius (16 sp.), Philippine Islands and Celebes, to Timor, North Australia, New Caledonia, the Marian and Samoa Islands, and probably every intervening island,—also a species (doubtfully indigenous) in the Nicobar Islands.

FAMILY 91.-CRACIDE. (12 Genera, 53 Species.)

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(Messrs. Sclater and Salvin's arrangement is here followed). The Cracidæ, or Curassows and Guans, comprise the largest and handsomest game-birds of the Neotropical region, where they take the place of the grouse and pheasants of the Old World. They are almost all forest-dwellers, and are a strictly Neotropical family, only one species just entering the Nearctic region as far as New Mexico. They extend southward to Paraguay and the extreme south of Brazil, but none are found in the

Antilles, nor west of the Andes south of the bay of Guayaquil. The sub-families and genera are as follows::

CRACINE, 4 genera.-Crax (8 sp.), Mexico to Paraguay (Plate XV., Vol. II. p. 28); Nothocrax (1 sp.), Guiana, Upper Rio Negro, and Upper Amazon; Pauxi (1 sp.), Guiana to Venezuela; Mitua (2 sp.), Guiana and Upper Amazon.

PENELOPINÆ, 7 genera-Stegnolama (1 sp.), Columbia and Ecuador; Penelope (14 sp.), Mexico to Paraguay and to western slope of Ecuadorian Andes; Penelopina (1 sp.), Guatemala; Pipile (3 sp.), Venezuela to Eastern Brazil; Aburria (1 sp.), Columbia; Chamapetes (2 sp.), Costa Rica to Peru; Ortalida (18 sp.), New Mexico to Paraguay, also Tobago.

OREOPHASINA, 1 genus.-Oreophasis (1 sp.), Guatemala.

It thus appears that the Cracinæ are confined to South America east of the Andes, except one species in Central America; whereas nine Penelopinæ and Oreophasis are found north of Panama. The species of the larger genera are strictly representative, each having its own distinct geographical area, so that two species of the same genus are rarely or never found in the same locality.

FAMILY 92. TINAMIDE. (9 Genera, 39 Species.)

GENERAL DISTRIBUTION.

ORIENTAL AUSTRALIAN
SUB-REGIONS.

NEOTROPICAL NEARCTIC PALEARCTIC ETHIOPIAN
SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS.

1.2.3

The Tinamous are a very remarkable family of birds, with the general appearance of partridges or hemipodes, but with the tail either very small or entirely wanting. They differ greatly in their organization from any of the Old World Gallinæ, and approach, in some respects, the Struthiones or Ostrich tribe. They are very terrestrial in their habits, inhabiting the forests, open plains, and mountains of the Neotropical region, from Patagonia and Chili to Mexico; but, like the Cracidæ, they are absent from the Antilles. Their colouring is very sober and protective, as is the case with so many ground-birds, and they are seldom adorned VOL. II.-23

with crests or other ornamental plumes, so prevalent in the order to which they belong. The sub-families and genera, according to the arrangement of Messrs. Sclater and Salvin, are as follows:

TINAMINÆ, 7 genera.—Tinamus (7 sp.), Mexico to Paraguay; Nothocercus (3 sp.), Costa Rica to Venezuela and Ecuador; Crypturus (16 sp.), Mexico to Paraguay and Bolivia; Rhynchotus (2 sp.), Bolivia and South Brazil to La Plata; Nothoprocta (4 sp.), Ecuador to Bolivia and Chili; Nothura (4 sp.), Brazil and Bolivia to Patagonia; Taoniscus (1 sp.), Brazil to Paraguay.

TINAMOTINE, 2 genera.-Calodromas (1 sp.), La Plata and Patagonia; Tinamotis (1 sp.), Andes of Peru and Bolivia.

General Remarks on the Distribution of Gallina.

There are about 400 known species of Gallinaceous birds grouped into 76 genera, of which no less than 65 are each restricted to a single region. The Tetraonidæ are the only cosmopolitan family, and even these do not extend into Temperate South America, and are very poorly represented in Australia. The Cracida and Tinamidæ are strictly Neotropical, the Megapodiidæ almost as strictly Australian. There remains the extensive family of the Phasianidæ, which offers some interesting facts. We have first the well-marked sub-families of the Numidinæ and Meleagrinæ, confined to the Ethiopian and Nearctic regions respectively, and we find the remaining five sub-families, comprising about 60 species, many of them the most magnificent of known birds, spread over the Oriental and the, south-eastern portion of the Palearctic regions. This restriction is remarkable, since there is no apparent cause in climate or vegetation why pheasants should not be found wild throughout southern Europe, as they were during late Tertiary and Post-Tertiary times. We have also to notice the remarkable absence of the Pheasant tribe from Hindostan and Ceylon, where the peacock and jungle-fowl are their sole representatives. These two forms also alone extend to Java, whereas in the adjacent islands of Borneo and Sumatra we have Argusianus, Polyplectron, and Euplocamus. The common jungle-fowl (the origin of our domestic poultry) is the only

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