Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 edition. Excerpt: ... KEY TO THE FAMILIES. (Referring only to North American Species.) A. Head feathered, tarsi bare, or partly or completely feathered. No spurs on tarsi. Plumage not iridescent. B. Head and upper part of neck, bare. Tarsi always bare. Spurs on tarsi of male. Plumage iridescent. KEY TO SUBFAMILIES. A. No spurs on legs. a. Nasal fossae and tarsi bare. Sides of toes not pectinated. Cutting edge of mandible more or less distinctly serrated near the tip. b. Nasal fossae densely feathered, Tarsi and toes partly, or completely covered with feathers. Sides of toes pectinated. Cutting edge of mandible not serrated. B. With spurs on tarsi of male. PARTRIDGES AND GROUSE. Tetraonidce. WILD TURKEYS. Phasianidce. AMERICAN PAR- TRIDGES. Odontophorince Page 19. GROUSE AND PTARMIGAN. Tetraonince. Page 74. WILD TURKEYS. Meleagrina. Page 172. FAMILY TETRAONID.E. This family contains the Quails, Partridges, and Grouse, and has its representatives in nearly every portion of the world. It has been subjected by different ornithologists to varying treatment and has at times been divided into many subfamilies, but three have always seemed to me quite sufficient, two of which are represented in North America. The three are: Perdicituz, containing the Quails and Partridges of the Old World, having no representative in the Western Hemisphere; Odontophorina, the American Partridges, natives of the New World unrepresented in the Old World; and Tetraonins, the Grouse and Ptarmigan found in both Hemispheres. They are all game birds, in the sense the sportsman understands the term, and wherever their habitat may be, whether the elevated plateaus or gloomy defiles of high mountain ranges, or the plains and prairies of level lands, or the forests and thickets of the more...
