126 CUCKO IV'S-LEADER—CURASSO W 



is found the curious form, Geococcyx (Chapparal-COCk). The genera 

 Keomorphus, Diplopterus, Saurothera, and Fiaya (the last two com- 

 monly called Rain-birds, from the belief that their cry portends 

 rain) may be noticed — all of them belonging to the Neotropical 

 Region ; but perhaps the most cm'ious form of American Cuckows 

 is Crotophaga (Ani), of which three species inhabit the same Region. 

 The best-kno\^Ti species {C. ani) is found throughout the Antilles 

 and on the opposite continent. In most of the British colonies it 

 is known as the Black Witch, and is accused of various malpractices 

 — it being, in truth, a perfectly harmless if not a beneficial bird. 

 As regards its propagation this aberrant form of Cuckow depai-ts as 

 much in one direction from the normal habit of birds as do so many 

 of our familiar friends of the Old World in the other, for several 

 females unite to lay their eggs in one nest. Full details of its 

 economy are wanting, but it is evident that incubation is carried on 

 socially, since an intruder on approaching the rude nest Avill disturb 

 perhaps half a dozen of its sable proprietors, who, loudly complain- 

 ing, seek safety either in the leafy branches of the tree that holds 

 it, or in the nearest available covert, with all the , speed that their 

 feeble powers of flight permit. 



CUCKOWS -LEADER and CUCKOWS - MATE, common 

 names for the Wryneck. 



CURASSOW,^ the ordinary corruption of Cwagoa-hird, as the 

 name was spelt in 1756 by Browne {Civ. and Nat. Hist. Jamaica, 

 p. 470), and doubtless due to the belief that the birds of this kind 

 first known to English voyagers came from the island so called. 

 They form the Linnsean genus Crax, and the Family Cracidse, which 

 is held by Messrs. Sclater and Salvin (Froc. Zool. Soc. 1870, pp. 

 504-544) to include three subfamilies — Cracinse the Curassows proper, 

 Fenelopinse (GuAN), and Oreophasinse — the last consisting of but a 

 single species, the beautiful Oreophasis derbianus of the Volcan de 

 Fuego in Guatemala, of whose haunts and habits IVIr. Salvin has 

 given an excellent account {Ibis, 1860, pp. 248-253). Prof. Huxley 

 has shewn {Froc. Zool. Soc. 1868, pp. 294-319) that the Cracidse 

 with the Megapodiidse (Megapode) form a distinct gi'oup of 

 ALECTOROMORPHiE or Gallinje, to which he applied the name 

 Feristeropodes, and thereon based some views of Geographical 



^ Danipier, a good authority on many things but not on orthography, in 1699 

 and 1703, used Corresso and Curreso [Vorj. ii. pt. 2, p. 67, and iii. pt. 1, p. 74) ; 

 Albin in 1738 wrote (iV. H. Birds, ii. p. 29) of birds of this kind (he having 

 figured both male and female), " They are generally brought from Carassow, from 

 whence they take their name." Sloane in 1707 (Foi/. p. 302) used Quirizao for 

 both island and bird ; and Linnaeus in 1758 {Syst. Nat. ed. 10, i. p. 157) used 

 Gallus curassivicus, which he professedly got from Aldrovandus, in \\hose work, 

 however, I have failed to find it. He figures a sx^ecies of Crax as Gallus Indicus 

 nib. xiv. cap. 10). 



