CHAP, i.j M. ATVIESHOFF'S FEAST. 243 



for the record of this success, certainly does observe that 

 in captivity Curassows are quite as familiar and con- 

 fiding as Turkeys, Pea-fowl, and Guinea-fowl, and attri- 

 butes their in fecundity in that state to the want of their 

 having received special attention and peculiar treat- 

 ment ; but unfortunately he does not tell us what those 

 soins particuliers have been, or ought to be. He in- 

 stances the success attained in M. Ameshoff's me- 

 nagerie, but gives no details ; and he makes us doubt 

 whether the success was really so very great, by calling 

 the dinner at which Curassows were served, ce festin 

 digne des temps d'Heliogabale, and informing us that on 

 the same occasion exotic Pheasants, Chinese Mandarin 

 Teal, and Louisiana Ducks, were produced at table, in 

 order to display the magnificence of the menagerie. In 

 short, it was a mere feast of bravado and a vain piece 

 of ostentation, in which any rich man could now more 

 easily indulge than M. Ameshoff, without having bred 

 his dainty fowl in such plentiful abundance. The cir- 

 cumstance, too, occurred in Temminck's early childhood, 

 and he speaks from hearsay and distant memory, not 

 from mature observation. 



We have now laid before the reader, fairly, we hope, 

 some of the pros and cons of the claims of the Curassow 

 family upon the patronage of the British poulterer or 

 amateur breeder. We shall next give some details re- 

 specting one species, with which we have had a personal 

 trial and experience. It will be for others to sum up 

 the evidence in the end, and decide what encourage- 

 ment there is for further attempts ; but we cannot help 

 entertaining a strong prejudice that the Cracidae are, 

 like the Parrot tribe, very tameable and docile as indi- 

 viduals; but that, in consequence of their refusal to 



B 2 



