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 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 readily domesticated, but rarely breed in confinement. Hybrids with domestic fowls have been recorded. Except where mentioned below the sexes are alike.
Fig. 45.–Crested Curassow. Crax alector. × ⅐.
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 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 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.