498 NATURAL HISTORY. 



The currasows and their relatives all belong to tropical America, only 

 one, the Texan gnan, entering the United States. All of the group are 

 essentially forest birds ; and most of them live habitually in the trees. 

 The true currassows are large and handsome birds of the tropics. They 

 live in the tops of the highest trees, where they search for their food. 

 Only one is an exception to this, as it lives during the day in burrows 

 beneath the ground, and at night it comes out and joins the others in the 

 top of the forest. In reference to these forms, two very different state- 

 ments appeal". One author says that the natives of the country in which 

 they abound frequently tame these birds, and that they breed well in 

 captivity. Another says that they are occasionally tamed, but not domes- 

 ticated, as they do not breed in confinement. The flesh is rather dry and 

 not especially well flavored. 



Sand-Grouse. 



The sand-grouse are merely mentioned to let the reader know that- 

 such a group exists. They are inhabitants of tropical Africa and Asia, 

 and in their appearance are somewhat intermediate between a grouse and 

 a pigeon ; but they have such a peculiar structure that naturalists have 

 placed them in a group by themselves. They fly in large flocks, but are 

 not especially good for food. 



Pigeons. 



Before taking up the typical pigeons, we must consider one of the least 

 pigeon-like forms, — the celebrated dodo. Two centuries and a half ago 

 this huge, ungainly bird was abundant on the Mascarene Islands, — Bour- 

 bon, Mauritius, and Rodriguez; but before 1700 it was extinct. We know 

 something of how the bird looked, both from pictures and descriptions. 

 Apparently several were brought to Europe ; and one certainly was exhib- 

 ited in London in 1638. There was, too, a stuffed specimen in the museum 

 of Oxford University ; but during the present century some of the gov- 

 erning board thought its condition disgraceful, and they ordered it 

 destroyed. The head and legs alone escaped ; and this, together with a 

 number of bones from a swamp in Mauritius, and a head in Copenhagen, 

 are all that is left. The introduction of do«;s and hogs into the Masca- 

 renes wrought the destruction of this flightless bird. 



The quaint account of Bontius is an example of many : " The Dronte 

 or Dodsers is for bigness of mean size between an Ostrich and a Turkey,, 

 from which it partly differs in shape and partly agrees with them, espe- 

 cially with the African Ostriches, if you consider the rump, quill, and 



