The Crested Screamer. 233 



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, while 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. Even the sterling qualities of 

 the elephant, the unique beauty of the zebra, appeal 



