ELEGANT BIRDS. 155 



and fried in a pan, are capital. They are 

 fond of living in very high trees on the 

 banks of rivers and streams, and do not shun 

 much the ranchos built in the forest. 



The other, and much rarer, is a most mag- 

 nificent bird, and gains the greatest perfec- 

 tion at the foot of the mountains. The male 

 bird is splendidly plumed in white and me- 

 tallic lustred greenish black, with a superb 

 orange-coloured crest on his head. The 

 female is very different in appearance, and 

 also possesses great beauty, but of another 

 class ; the colour of her plumage is more a 

 mahogany, but variegated on the breast and 

 neck like a pheasant, and she has a fine black 

 comb, or rather crest. They are as good to 

 eat as beautiful to look at, but are very diffi- 

 cult to get near to, as they are extremely 

 shy, and avoid human habitations ; but when 

 they are caught young, or hatched under a 

 hen, they soon become so tame as to be 

 quite troublesome. Passing one day under a 

 clumpy, thick tree, I was startled by a great 

 commotion in the branches, when out flew 

 a fine cock turkey, which I knocked over 

 with one barrel ; the report sent out a hen 

 bird, which shared the same fate from the 

 other barrel ; thinking there might be some 



