CURASSO W—CURLE W 



127 



Distribution which are considered elsewhere. But at present to 

 treat of the Cracinai, the two avithors above mentioned recognize 4 

 good genera : — Crax with a soft cere, and the nostrils placed in 

 the middle of the maxilla, while the remain- 

 ing three have the whole of the bill horny 

 and the nostrils at its base, the lores being- 

 bare in Nothocrax, but feathered in Pauxis 

 (Cashew-bird) and 3Iitua, the former of 

 Avhich bears the - 



y^^ 



MiTL'A. 



Crax. 



curious frontal 

 knob already 

 mentioned, while 

 the latter has the 

 culmen of its short 

 and greatly com- 

 pressed bill ele- 

 vated and swollen. 

 Many further par- (^"er Swainson.) 



ticulars of the Curassows may be gathered from two other papers 

 by Mr. Sclater {Trans. Zool. Soc. ix. pp. 273-288, pis. 40-53, and x. 

 pp. 543-546, pis. 89-95), which are illustrated copiously and mostly 

 from living examples, for these birds thrive well in confinement, 

 though the hopes once entertained of their capacity for domestica- 

 tion have been disappointed.^ The Cracidse are one of the most 

 characteristic Families of the K^eotropical Region, outside of which 

 but few of them and none of the Cradnix. go, and are especially 

 abundant in Central and the north parts of South America, few 

 l)eing found in Paraguay, and none in Patagonia or Chili. 



CURLEW, in French Courlis or Corlieu, a name given to two 

 ])irds, of whose cry it is an imitation, both belonging to the group 

 Limicola', but possessing very different habits and features. 



1. The Long-billed Curlew, or simply Curlew of most British 

 writers, the Numenius arquata - of ornithologists, is one of the 

 largest of the Family Scolopacidse, or Snipes and allied forms. It 

 is common on the shores of the United Kingdom and most 

 parts of Europe, seeking the heaths and moors of the interior and 

 more northern countries in the breeding-season, where it lays its 

 four brownish-green eggs, suffused with cinnamon markings, in an 

 artless nest on the ground. In England it has been ascertained to 

 breed in Cornwall and in the counties of Devon, Dorset, Salop, and 



^ On this see E. S. Dixon, The Dovecote and the Aviary, pp. 223-279 (London : 

 1851). 



- Some authors have tried to improve on tliis word by writing arquatus, 

 which is nonsense, though arcuatus might be right. As a matter of fact, arquata 

 is a substantive and tlie name of tlie bird in mediaeval Latin, which of course 

 Linnaeus knew. 



