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 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 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, 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 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.
