CURASSOW—CURLEW 127 
DISTRIBUTION which are considered elsewhere. But at present to 
treat of the Cracinx, the two authors above mentioned recognize 4 
good genera :—Craz 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 Pauzis 
(CASHEW-BIRD) and JMitua, the former of 
which bears the 
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- (After Swainson.) 
ticulars of the Curassows may be gathered from two other papers 
by Mr. Sclater (Trans. Zool. Soc. ix. pp. 273-288, pls. 40-53, and x. 
pp. 543-546, pls. 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 Cracidv are one of the most 
characteristic Families of the Neotropical Region, outside of which 
but few of them and none of the Cracinx go, and are especially 
abundant in Central and the north parts of South America, few 
being found in Paraguay, and none in Patagonia or Chili. 
CURLEW, in French Coulis or Corlieu, a name given to two 
birds, of whose cry it is an imitation, both belonging to the group 
Limicolx, 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 Scolopacidx, 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 
1 On this see E. S. Dixon, The Dovecote and the Aviary, pp. 223-279 (London : 
1851). 
2 Some authors have tried to improve on this word by writing arquatus, 
which is nonsense, though arcuatus might be right. As a matter of fact, arquata 
is a substantive and the name of the bird in medieval Latin, which of course 
Linneus knew. 
