270 HABITS OF THE EYE -BROWED GUAN. [CHAP. II. 



in a sad, ricketty, and declining state ; but if we go and 

 buy a Heliotrope or Verbena of a florist, we have no 

 right to blame him because it does not bear exposure to 

 our climate during winter, be it never such a miserable 

 scrap. However, the next move is, that there may lie 

 the cause of failure. " The Guans I have sent back : 

 they, as well as all the specimens that I have seen, 

 have the seeds of disease from over-close confinement, 

 I imagine. They got thinner under the best of food 

 and attention, and as I did not wish to lose any more, I 

 returned them, and told the vendor either to send me a 

 pair of stronger birds now, or let the matter rest till I 

 come up to town, when I will make some purchase ; 

 but not the pair of Emeus he lately offered me for 35Z. 

 (How famously they would draw a carriage full of 

 children, if one had any !) Still, although these dealers' 

 birds will not pay, I think if we could have a fair start 

 with healthy unmuddled birds from any source (from 

 such a place as the Earl of Derby's, for instance), we 

 should certainly succeed. My birds have all been of the 

 supercilious sort the chestnut of the last arose from 

 age, I fear. I dissected my poor Guan, and then quietly 

 interred him : the way in which the trachea comes for- 

 ward over the keel of the breast-bone, and turns about 

 before entering the larynx, is curious and interesting. 

 I am sorry to hear of the ill-success of your last Guan ; 

 but it only proves the correctness of my opinion, that 

 the whole of the dealers' birds are affected in some way 

 or other, so as to render them unfit for breeding and 

 thriving. We shall worry Jamrach to death between 

 us ! He has, however, been very obliging." 



Here follows an account of the habits of this special 

 lot of birds, before their final dismissal in despair of 

 doing anything with them : " The character of the 



