8 ELEMENTS OF ORNITHOLOGY, 
as a national symbol of the Republic instead of that hackneyed 
emblem the Eagle. 
South and Central America, though they have no Fowls, 
Pheasants, Guinea-fowls, or Turkeys, possess between fifty and 
sixty large species of Birds, known as Curassows, of which the 
Crested Curassow (Craz alector) may standasa type. They are 
plain and sombre in colour ¢ompared with the brilliant creatures 
to which we have before referred. They are also more thoroughly 
arboreal in their habits, being (like so many species which 
inhabit that widest of forest- regions—Brazil) specially modified 
Fig. 4 

The Crested Curassow (Craz alector). 
to live in trees, high up on which they construct their nests of 
twigs. 
AWsesihe has no birds to show, like those hitherto enumerated, 
although its curious mound-building Birds, or ‘“ Megapodes, 
go by the misnomer of ** Brush- -turkeys,” —no doubt on account 
of the wattled skin of the head and neck which some of them 
possess. One handsome kind (Lezpoa ocellata) has its plumage 
decorated with eye-like markings. These Megapodes are cele- 
brated for the mounds they raise to receive their eggs. The 
