232 DOMESTICABILITY OF CRACID.E. [CHAP. i. 



and can do so much for ourselves, and are, so far, inde- 

 pendent of the beneficent and providential forethought 

 of a higher Power for the gift of the humble companions 

 and inarticulate ministers on earth which add so much 

 to our comfort. We should express the convictions of 

 many, in declaring that the doctrine of the perpetual 

 progression of organic forms, in opposition to their per- 

 manency (or, what we believe to be the truth, their 

 slight variation within certain prescribed and impass- 

 able limits), if supposed to take place in consequence of 

 an innate power or law working within them of itself, 

 contradicts those principles of natural theology and that 

 belief in an Almighty Benevolent Creator, which are 

 happily all but universally received. We might most 

 easily enlarge upon this topic ; but it will be better and 

 more satisfactory to show that history, as far as we 

 can trace it that experiments and attempts carefully 

 and perseveringly made and that observations about 

 which there can be no doubt, all tend to contradict, 

 instead of confirming, the theories to which we have 

 alluded. 



We will now see what bearing the Cracida3 and their 

 domesticability have upon the subject. 



The late Mr. Bennett, in his " Gardens of the Zoo- 

 logical Society Delineated," an elegant and well-known 

 work, published in 1831, very naturally observes, that, 

 " Of all the gallinaceous birds in the collection, the 

 most interesting are those which hold out to us a pros- 

 pect 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 reclaimed ; and it is really sur- 

 prising, considering the extreme familiarity of their 

 manners, and the facility with which they appear to pass 



