=The grouse, quail, pheasants, turkeys, etc. (Gallinæ).=--The Gallinæ include most of the domestic fowls, as the hen, turkey, peacock, guinea-fowls, and pheasants, and the grouse, quail, partridges, and wild turkeys. The chief game-birds of most countries belong to this order. They have the bill short, heavy, convex, and bony, adapted for picking up and crushing seeds and grains which compose their principal food. Their legs are strong and usually not long, and are often feathered very low down. The Gallinæ are mostly terrestrial in habit and are sometimes known as the Rasores or "scratchers." Among the more familiar wild gallinaceous birds are the quail or "Bob white" (_Colinus virginianus_), abundant in eastern and central United States, the ruffed grouse (_Bonasa umbellus_) of the Eastern woods, and the prairie-chicken (_Tympanuchus americanus_) of the Western prairies. The sage-hen (_Centrocercus urophasianus_), the largest of the American grouse, reaching a length of two and one-half feet, is an interesting inhabitant of the sterile sagebrush plains of the West. The ptarmigan (_Lagopus_) or snow-grouse, represented by several species, are found either among the rocks and snow-banks above timber line on high mountains, or in the Arctic regions. In summer their plumage is brown and white; in winter they turn pure white to harmonize with the uniform snow-covering. On the Pacific coast are several species of quail, all differing much from those of the East. These Western species have beautiful crests of a few or several long plume-feathers, the body-plumage being also unusually beautiful. The eggs of all the Gallinæ are numerous and are laid in a rude nest or simply in a depression on the ground. In many of the species polygamy is the rule. The young are precocial.
=The doves and pigeons (Columbæ).=--The doves and pigeons constitute a small order, the Columbæ, closely related to the Gallinæ. A distinguishing characteristic of the Columbæ lies in the bill, which is covered at the base with a soft swollen membrane or cere in which the nostrils open. The members of this order feed on fruits, seeds, and grains. Our most familiar wild species is the mourning-dove or turtle-dove (_Zenaidura macroura_) found abundantly all over the country. It lays two eggs in a loose slight nest in a low tree or on the ground. The beautiful wild or passenger pigeon (_Ectopistes migratorius_) was once extremely abundant in this country, moving about in tremendous flocks in the Eastern and Central States. But it has been so relentlessly hunted that the species is apparently becoming extinct. In the Rocky and Sierra Nevada mountains is a rather large dove, the band-tailed pigeon (_Columba fasciata_), which subsists chiefly on acorns. The domestic pigeon represented by numerous varieties, pouters, carriers, ruff-necks, fan-tails, etc., is the artificially selected descendant of the rock-dove (_Columba livia_). The young of all pigeons are altricial.