The Crested Screamer. 223 
chickens were at length offered to him as an experi- 
ment, and he immediately took charge of them with 
every token of satisfaction, conducting them about 
in search of food and imitating all the actions of a 
hen. Finding him so good a nurse, large broods 
were given to him, and the more the foster-chickens 
were the better he seemed pleased. It was very 
curious to see this big bird with thirty or forty 
little animated balls of yellow cotton following him 
about, wnile he moved majestically along, setting 
down his feet with the greatest care not to tread on 
them, and swelling himself up with jealous anger at 
the approach of a cat or dog. 
The intelligence, docility, and attachment to man 
displayed by the chakar in a domestic state, with 
perhaps other latent aptitudes only waiting to be 
developed by artificial selection, seem to make this 
species one peculiarly suited for man’s protection, 
without which it must inevitably perish. It is 
sad to reflect that all our domestic animals have 
descended to us from those ancient times which 
we are accustomed to regard as dark or bar- 
barous, while the effect of our modern so-called 
humane civilization has been purely destructive to 
animal life. Not one type do we rescue from the 
carnage going on at an ever-increasing rate over all 
the globe. To Australia and America, North and 
South, we look in vain for new domestic species, 
while even from Africa, with its numerous fine 
mammalian forms, and where England has been 
the conquering colonizing power for nearly a cen- 
tury, we take nothing. Hven the sterling qualities of 
the elephant, the unique beauty of the zebra, appeal 
