CHAP. i.J OF TENDER CONSTITUTION. 239 



the rookery at the back of your house, say how she 

 would like the charge of fowls that nested, laid, and 

 hatched in that manner ; and when your lady takes 

 your arm for a stroll through the stove and greenhouse, 

 you will hear whether she would consent to turn out the 

 gay things for summer bedding, to make room for the 

 Curassows and Guans,lest their toes should " damp off" 

 like the shoots of Heliotropes and Verbenas. These 

 arrangements and considerations are not at all ro- 

 mancing or imaginary, nor must they be neglected by 

 acclimators of the Cracidae. The venerable Dr. Neill, 

 of Canonmills, near Edinburgh, who has effected more 

 than most naturalists in inducing a Guan even to lay, 

 thus informs us of the locality in which the interesting 

 event has taken place : A Penelope cristata is kept in 

 a large cage occupying one end of a greenhouse. It is a 

 female, and generally once a year lays two or three eggs, 

 very imperfectly covered with shell." 



It is thus clear that they are, in this climate, green- 

 house birds during the winter. Mr. Gould is of opinion 

 that they might possibly do out of doors all the year round 

 in Italy ; but as their propagation in confinement has 

 failed so completely everywhere in Europe (we do not 

 except the often-quoted instance in Holland), the only 

 chance of naturalising them lies in allowing them (what 

 they are not usually trusted with here) complete liberty 

 during the finer months of the year, and full permission 

 to follow their native habits. What those habits are, 

 and how much nearer they resemble those of a rookery 

 than the hen-house, we are informed by a recent traveller 

 who had penetrated far into the interior of South Ame- 

 rica: 



" Of Curassows, or Muturis, we never shot but one 



