GALLINACEOUS • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Gallinaceous

... are a small family of birds found only in Australia and the surrounding islands, but extending as far as the Philippines and Northwest Borneo. They are allied to the gallinaceous birds, but differ from these and from all others in never sitting upon their eggs, which they bury in sand, earth, or rubbish, and leave to be hatched by the heat of the sun or by fermentation. They are all characterised by very large feet and long curved claws, and most of the species ...

— The Malay Archipelago - Volume I. (of II.) • Alfred Russel Wallace