220 



THE AMERICAN POULTERER'S COMPANION. 



THE 15KUSU TURKEY. 



in its gorgeous dress, effulgent with its golden 

 bronze, steel-blue, emerald green, and velvet 

 black. A specimen of this rare bird is now 

 said to be in the Paris Museum. Of the habits 

 of the species, which appears to inhabit the 

 vast forests of Honduras, nothing is known. 

 The specimen in question was one of those 

 seen by a crew employed in cutting wood, and 

 captured alive. It died after it arrived in the 

 Thames, in consequence of an accident. 



Two species only are known to naturalists, 

 namely, the common wild turkey (M&hagris 

 galopavo) of North America, the origin of our 

 domestic stock, and the Honduras turkey (3/. 

 Ocellata), figured on page 219, a bird which, 

 in the metallic splendor and varying tints of its 

 plumage, outrivals the peacock, if not every ten- 

 ant of the air. But except, perhaps, in some 

 of the dense untrodden forests of Yucatan and 

 of Central America, from Cape Honduras to 

 the tenth degree of north latitude this bird 

 might be sought for in vain. Of its peculiar 

 habits and manners nothing is positively known. 

 We may suppose, however, that it resembles, to 

 a great degree, the common wild turkey of the 

 north. Could it be domesticated in our South- 

 ern States, what a splendid acquisition should 

 we have to our poultry-yard ! 



THE BRUSH TURKEY. 



This bird is a native of Australia and the Pa- 

 puan Islands, and in various parts of New South 

 Wales. In the dense brushwood of Manning 

 and Clarence it is plentiful. It was found in 

 the scrubby gullies and sides of the lower hills 

 that branch off from the great range into the in- 

 terior ; on the Brezi range, to the north of the 

 Liverpool Plains, and was abundant on all the 

 hills on both sides of the Naomi. It is gregari- 

 ous, moving about in small companies, like many 

 other gallinaceous birds ; but the most remark- 

 able circumstance connected with the economy 

 of this bird is its nidification, for it does not 

 hatch its own eggs by incubation. The bird is 

 a thorough chemist, and constructs for itself a 

 patent artificial incubator, on truly chemical 

 principles, by which it hatches its eggs in a sci- 

 entific manner, without the tedious operation 

 of sitting, to which other birds submit. It is a 

 believer in fermentation and co-operation ; for 

 when the breeding season arrives, a number of 

 these birds enter into copartnership, as it were, 

 and collect together a huge heap of decaying 

 vegetables as the place of deposit of its eggs ; 

 thus making a hot-bed, arising from the decom- 

 position of the collected matter, by the heat of 



