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344 GEOGRAPHICAL ZOOLOGY. [fart iv.
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 :
—
TiNAMiN^, 7 genera..
— —
Tinamus (7 sp.), Mexico to Paraguay;
Nothocercus (3 sp.), Costa Eica to Venezuela and Ecuador; Crypt-
urus (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.
TiNAMOTiN.^, 2 genera.
Calodromas (1 sp.). La Plata and
Patagonia ; Tinamotis (1 sp.), Andes of Peru and Bolivia.
General BemarJcs on the Distribution of Qallinm.
There are about400 known species of Gallinaceous birds grouped
into 76 genera, of which no less than 65 are each restricted
to a single region. The Tetraonidse are the only cosmopolitan
family, and even these do not extend into Temperate South Ameri-
ca, and are very poorly represented in Australia. The Cracidse
and Tinamidse are strictly Neotropical, the Megapodiidse almost
as strictly Australian. There remains the extensive family of the
Phasianidse, which offers some interesting facts. We have first
the well-marked sub-families of the Numidinse and Meleagrinse,
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
Paltearctic 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 Ar^usianus, Polyplectron, and Euplocamus. The common
jungle-fowl (the origin of our domestic poultry) is the only