226 GALLING. CRACID.E. 



useful foreign animals, and among these it has 

 devoted especial attention to the Cracidte. Soon 

 after the formation of its menagerie, its late es- 

 teemed Secretary, Mr. Bennett, thus wrote : 

 " Of all the Gallinaceous birds in the collection, 

 the most interesting are those which hold out to 

 us a prospect of supplying our farm-yards with 

 new breeds of Poultry of a superior kind. Such 

 are especially the Curassows. In many parts of 

 South America these birds have long been re- 

 claimed ; and it is really surprising, considering 

 the extreme familiarity of their manners, and the 

 facility with which they appear to pass from a 

 state of nature to the tameness of domestic fowls, 

 that they have not yet been introduced into the 

 poultry-yards of Europe. That with proper treat- 

 ment they would speedily become habituated to 

 the climate, we have no reason to doubt; on the 

 contrary, numerous examples have shewn that 

 they thrive well even in its northern parts ; and 

 M. Temminck informs us, that they have once at 

 least been thoroughly acclimated in Holland, 

 where they were as prolific in their domesticated 

 state as any of our common poultry. The estab- 

 lishment, however, in which this had been effected, 

 was broken up by the civil commotions which fol- 

 lowed in the train of the French Revolution, and 

 all the pains which had been bestowed upon the 

 education of these birds, were lost to the world 

 by their sudden and complete dispersion. The 

 task which had at that time been in some measure 

 accomplished still remains to be performed ; and 

 it may not be too much to expect that the Zoolo- 

 gical Society may be successful in perfecting what 

 was then so well begun, and in naturalizing the 



