242 NOT COMMON IN SOUTH AMERICA. [CHAP. i. 



years. This may afford a clue to the perplexity which 

 has harassed some Ornithologists respecting their nu- 

 merous species, and the varieties " caused by domesti- 

 cation, "according to their theory. This is a fashionable 

 and an easy way of solving a difficulty ; but it ought 

 first to be proved, that the Cracidse are, even in their 

 native country, really domesticated at all. 



Mr. Swainson, instead of finding such plenty of Cu- 

 rassows, tells us that, through all the tracts of Brazil 

 and its different provinces which he traversed, solely 

 with a view of collecting its zoological productions, he 

 was not fortunate enough to procure a single specimen 

 of the Crax alector, although he sometimes heard of its 

 being occasionally seen by the remote planters located 

 on the verge of the unoccupied tracts. As to this, or 

 any other species, being kept in the poultry-yards of 

 the native Brazilians, he never saw a single reclaimed 

 specimen through a tract of territory which he tra- 

 versed, extending some hundreds of miles. In Guiana, 

 he adds, these birds have long become so scarce, that 

 in a collection of many hundreds made in that country 

 by Mr. Schomberg, there are not three specimens of 

 the whole genus. 



Mr. Darwin, during his voyage with the Beagle, saw 

 nothing of Curassows in South America, except a very 

 few wild ones in the damp islands at the mouth of the 

 Parana. Similar localities are given by Mr. Swainson, 

 from personal observation, as their favourite haunts, 

 namely, thickly- wooded marshes, and the vicinity of 

 water. It is odd that Holland should be the only 

 European country in which they are said to have really 

 thriven. 



Temminck, who alone is quoted, often at second-hand, 



