Eye-browed Guan (Penelope siiperciliaris). 



CHAPTER II. 



THE CRACID^E-PENELOPES (COMMONLY GUANS). 



Difficulty of discriminating the species. State in which the young are hatched. 

 Easily tamed. Produce few young in a tame state. Mode of distinguishing 

 species. Organ of voice. Its efficiency. The Cracidae as poultry. Mr. Ben- 

 nett's and Mr. Martin's hopes. Causes of failure. Have had a fair trial. 

 Curassow dinner. Cracidse in Holland. Temminck's expectations ; plausible 

 but unfounded. Determine on an experiment. Unsuitability of South Ameri- 

 can organisms to Great Britain. Instances. Few exceptions. The reversed 

 seasons of the north and south hemispheres one cause. Mr. Darwin's account. 

 Guans at the Surrey Gardens. Their native habits and diet. Our own mishaps. 

 Troublesome tameness of the birds. Tricks and dangers. Impudence and 

 capriciousness. Possible profitableness ! Narrative of a coadjutor. His ill- 

 success. Our own. Habits of the Eye-browed Guan. Amount of success at 

 Knowsley. 



THE genus of birds now under consideration, which 

 is composed of not a few species, and doubtless of more 



