

CRACID.K. 



180 



* M. Curi^T-d th. tru* 0r. Una.. tog-th.* with the 

 /W<.~ an. 0rftefa of M. If mm. The two latter genera have 

 TLTtMMlMfcil oo a lev.l with the front toea, and thus 

 to 



Their bills also, more lengthened 

 On*, approach mo* nearly to those of the Pigeons, 

 oUrhand,m to m**t thn by the rtronger f. 



ooe oer 



LSSta o, bflrf r-^. which derive, in th~ P-ticj'Ur. 

 ^wnfamilT. The nus (*//<, m 



. The genus 



are dh*ud from the 



tw of Anrfo>. brings a* in immediate contact with IBM 

 . Hw.itb,intU.rtmnof the order, that I would assign 

 pUr. to to* beaotifal New Holland grnus Jtfmoro, Lath., a group 

 that BM liithirln aSbrded more difficulty to the systematic writer 

 ar other in the class. By modern author* it is generally placed 

 MoJtb* Pereben on account of the length and low position of the 



I certain positions a alight tinge of green. Tail-feather* tipped with 

 white. Leg* red, claws yellow. Iris brown. Bill bright red : the 

 protuberance with which it is surmounted (which is rounded in the 

 young birds, and pear-ehaped with the narrow end directed forwards 

 in the adult males) of a livid slate-colour; it is more than two inches 

 in length when fully developed, hard and bony externally, and inter- 

 nally cellular, the cells communicating with the cavity of the mouth. 

 This protuberance is not visible till after the first moulting, when it 

 first appears in the form of a small tubercle, and becomes much 

 larger in the male than in the female. In other respects there u 

 little difference between the sexes, and the young are only distin- 

 guished by a browner tinge. The windpipe descends for a consider- 

 able distance in front of the sternum, immediately beneath the skin, 

 and makes no less than three distinct convolutions before passing 



MTra Bat iu habiu and manners are gallinaceous, as far as we 

 oan mr*^ and its general appearance decidedly evinces an aftimty 

 to Ik* >* The deviation in the structure of the foot from that 

 of the typical Rasorial groups only indicates its being placed at a 

 distance from them, and in that extreme of the order which connects 

 |^,)f v ||]| to, conterminous order of Perchers. The same deviation, 

 it has bean seen, is found in other groups of it* own family, and in 

 the adjoining family of CbfanM&B. A group newly discovered in 

 some islands of the Eastern Archipelago, the Meyapodiiu of H. Tern- 

 rfWfc strves strongly to illustrate these principles, and to corroborate 

 nr opinion as to the situation of the singular New Holland genus 

 before us. The JtVpapodiiu, brought home to France by one of her 

 Uu expeditions, U confessedly gallinaceous in iU habits, and as such 

 has been placed, without hesitation, among the true Katortt, and yet 

 iU foot is precisely of the same construction as that of Menura. The 

 bill also shows no very material difference from those of the extreme 

 groups of toe Craeida. To return however to the general affinities of 

 toe family, it may again be repeated that all the Utter genera thus 

 united among themselves, evince an evident approach to the Colum- 

 Mm, from which, it may be remembered, we commenced our obser- 

 vatioos on the order. The whole of the groups of the Ratora, thus 

 following each other in continued affinity, preserve their circular 

 accession without interruption." [Mr.Ni'RA.J 



The following are the characters of the Family : Three toes before, 

 one behind, the latter touching the ground throughout Head 

 feathered, generally crested : there is often a cere or naked skin at 

 the tm-T of the bill. 



Mr. Swainson, Natural History and Classification of Birds,' vol. i., 

 p. 153, state*, that " in the family of the Cracidtt, which connects the 

 lottmorm with the Katortt, the hinder toe is nearly as long as in the 

 cuckoos, and is considerably more developed than in any other group 

 of rasorial birds. We will say nothing of the genera Meyapodita, 

 PmlmmeJeu, and Jfatejra, whose feet are well known to be enormous ; 

 or of Ofutkomoxu, because specimens of these large and rare birds 

 are not upon our table. Confining ourselves to the genus Penelope, 

 we may remark that the tees, considered by themselves, might be 

 taken for Uioee of a cuckoo, if the outer one was only versatile ; it is 

 evident also, from the structure of the claws, that these birds are 

 much more arboreal than their congeners, for their claws are more 

 curved ; and from their lateral and not horizontal compression, as 

 well from their acuteness, we conclude that they are very little, if at 

 all, employed in scratching the ground, their structure being similar 

 to those of Perchers, and adapted only for clinging. The foot, in fact, 

 of the Penelope, is not a rasorial but an meesaorial foot, for it does not 

 possess any on* of the rasorial characters. Even the hind toe, which 

 in all other rasorial birds is raised above the heel, is here placed upon 

 the same level as the anterior toes. That no ambiguity should rest 

 on this fact, we beg to call the ornithologist's attention to the parti- 

 cular species now before us, the P. Aracum of 8pix, one of the most 

 r~~~* of the same genus. How this remarkable formation in the 

 foot of the typical Oraeida should hitherto have been completely 

 overlooked, even by those who have speculated so much on the mode 

 by which the AMOKS and /mttaora are united, is somewhat extraor- 

 dinary. We oan only account for it by the custom of examining spe- 

 cimens set up in eases, or on branches, instead of preserving them in 

 Una, in which sUte they can be handled in all directions. But how- 

 ever this may be, the (act iteelf decides the long-contested question as 

 to which family of the Katora makes the nearest approach or rather 

 forms the passage to the Intettoret ; while, if this question be I evened, 

 and it U astird which of the liuruom makes the nearest approach to 

 the Katortt, we need only direct our search among some of the long- 

 Isggsil Hnudlian cuckoos, or at once point to the singular genus 

 C^sssfjseosvHis. 



Ouru (Pmuxi, Temm.). Bill short, strong, compressed, vaulted, 

 convex, dilated at the bsM of the upper mandible into a horny, oval, 

 hard, sod elevated substance. Nostrils basal, pierced near the front, 

 hidden, open beneath ; head corcrad with short and doswt feathers. 

 Pert (Umi) long and smooth. This family consista of the following 



into the cavity of the chest. (E. T 



" Pamxi (Cuv.), the Oaleatod Cnrassow. Sixe about that of a small 

 bra turkey. Head and neck covered with short velvety feathers of a 

 lion black. All the rest of the plumage, with the exception of the 



white abdomen and under tail-covrta, 



plumage, with the except 

 >verU, brilliant black, exhibiting 



Calcutta CuroMow (Ouras 

 ThU bird is a native of Mexico, where the species lives in largo com- 

 panies perching upon the trees. Nest generally made on the ground. 

 The young are led about by the female in the same manner as the 

 hen pheasant and the common hen lead theirs. The first food of the 

 chicks consists of worms and insects, but as they advance fruits and 

 seeds ore added. Hernandez gives a very good description of the bird 

 in his ' Hiutoria Avium Novao Hispanic,' cap. ccxxii. The Galeated 

 Curassow is easily domesticated, and is enumerated by M. Temminck 

 among the birds which bred abundantly in the menagerie of M. 

 Ameshoff before the French revolution. 



Mr. Yarrell has pointed out the peculiarities of the very elongated 

 trachea of another species, Ourax Mitu, Cuvicr. This organ is pro- 

 duced between the skin and the muscles beyond the sternum, and 

 reaches almost to the vent. It has been figured by Dr. Latham, 

 M. Temminck, and others. The sterno-tracheal muscles extend along 

 the whole of the tube, a disposition which, Mr. Yarrell remarked, 

 prevails with one or two exceptions in all birds in which the fold of 

 the trachea is not included in the bone. (' Zool. Proc.,' 1830-31.) 

 Mr. Bennett ('Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society') 

 observes that the nostrils in Ouro-r /tain ore seated behind the 

 protuberance, and are perpendicular in their direction : the mem- 

 branous cere which surrounds them, he adds, u covered with short 

 velvety feather*. 



Oar. Bill moderate, long, compressed, higher than it is broad at 

 the base, thick, carinated above, curved towards t.be end, surrounded 

 at the base with a membrane ; lore naked ; nostrils lateral, longitu- 

 dinal, pierced in the cere, and partinlly < \, i. >1. Head crested with 

 curled feathers. Tail spresid out, inclined ; tail-fi-athers 14. Sixth quill 

 the longest. Hallux reaching the ground with the first phalanx. 



C. Altctor (Linnteiu), the Crested Curassow. The plumage of the 

 Crested Curassow is of a deep black, with a slight gloss of green upon 

 the head, crest, neck, back, wings, and up|*T purl of the tail ; it is 

 of a dull white beneath, and on the lower tail-coverts. Its crest is from 

 2 to 8 inches in length, and occupies the whole upper surface <>f tin' 

 head ; it is curled and valvety in its appearance, and capable of being 

 raised or depressed at will. The eyes ore surrounded by a nake<l nkiii 

 which extends into the cere, and there assumes a bright yellow colour. 

 Sixe about that of Ourar /taut. (E. T. Bennett) 



" This species," says Mr. Bennett " is a native of Mexico, Guyana, 

 and Brazil, and probably extends itself over a large portion of the 

 iithnrn division of the American cnntiniMit. In the woods of Quynna 

 it appears to be so extremely common that M. Snnnini regards it as 

 the most certain resource of the hungry traveller whose stock of pro- 

 visions is exhausted, and who has consequently to trust to hia gun 



in I for furnishing him with a fresh supply. They congregate together in 



