Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/251

238 juicy and savoury, and though not often eaten now, was in former times an important addition to great banquets. It was served up by the sewer with much ceremony, dressed in its own brilliant plumage. The adventurous knight of the days of chivalry was accustomed to make his solemn vows, "before the Peacock and the Ladies."

The groups which form this extensive Family are distinguished from the Phasianidæ by their more simple appearance; by the absence of the naked crests and wattles that are so common among the last-named birds, as well as of the brilliant colours and metallic lustre of their plumage. In the Grouse we find no naked skin about the head, with the exception of the space which surrounds the eye; this, when present, is of a scarlet hue. The tail is in general very short, and in some genera only rudimentary; yet there are species, as the larger Grouse of Europe and America, and the Pintails of Africa, which manifest a tendency to the great development of this organ, which is so characteristic of the Pheasants. The hind toe which in the last-named Family is long and powerful, is in that before us small and weak, and in the extreme genera reduced to a rudiment; thus preparing us for the birds of the succeeding Family, in which it is altogether wanting.

Though some genera of the Tetraonidæ are