The Birds of India

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: his plumage and gobbling. The tarsus is armed with a blunt spur, and the bill is rather short and stout. Three species are now known, Meleagris sylvestris, of N. America; M. ocellata, of Honduras; and M. mexicana, Gould, undoubtedly the origin of the domestic Turkey. They frequent woods, associating in...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: his plumage and gobbling. The tarsus is armed with a blunt spur, and the bill is rather short and stout. Three species are now known, Meleagris sylvestris, of N. America; M. ocellata, of Honduras; and M. mexicana, Gould, undoubtedly the origin of the domestic Turkey. They frequent woods, associating in large flocks. Fam. Teteaonidje?Grouse and Partridges. Syn. Cohort Perdices, Bonap. Bill generally short, stout, and thick; nostrils, in many, plumed at the base; wings rounded in most, pointed in a few, longer than in the Phasianidce; tail short or moderate, even or very slightly rounded, forked and lengthened in a few; tarsus rather short and stout; face feathered entirely, or with a small patch of nude skin over or round the eye. Plumage of the sexes in general differing but very slightly, sometimes not at all. The Grouse, Partridges, and Quails, which compose this family, differ markedly in several points from the Pheasants and Jungle- fowls, albeit some of them have more or less resemblance to the birds of that group. The Black-cock with his forked tail and black plumage recalls the 'coloring of Gallophasis and Acomus; and the Capercailzie has the perching habits of the Pheasants. But there is something in the physiognomy of most of this family which points them out, even to the common observer, as a distinct group. Their form is heavy, stout, and massive; the neck shorter; the bill stout and short; the tail is shorter, and seldom raised; there is very slight, often no difference between the sexes; and the plumage of most has that peculiar character distinguished as game plumage, rather a vague term certainly, and more evident to the eye than describable in words. They have, moreover, a totally different geographical distribution, being found over all the world, ...