CHAP. m.J GREAT DESIDERATA. 379 



present absence from us looks as if there had been a 

 difficulty in propagating them. Albin, referred to by 

 Temminck, gives a good coloured engraving, which he 

 leads us to suppose was drawn from the living bird 

 while in the possession of an English gentleman, whom 

 he names, about a hundred years ago. He is par- 

 ticularly careful not to admit any apocryphal species 

 into his book. But at present, Byam's birds remain a 

 great puzzle as well as a great desideratum. With 

 much regret at not having the power to give fuller 

 details respecting Crested Turkeys, I am still glad to 

 have made this imperfect mention of them, both because 

 they will be a great acquisition to our aviaries, perhaps 

 to our poultry courts, but most especially because that, 

 on the appearance of any of these rarities, they may not 

 now be looked upon as "a sport," the offspring of 

 domestication, but as a pure and primitive race. None 

 of the theories frequently deduced from the supposed 

 transmutation of corn, &c., can now be propped up by 

 the re-introduction of these birds, which we have hopes, 

 ere long, of seeing in England. The Earl of Derby, 

 who has already rendered such great assistance to zoo- 

 logy by enriching its stores, is promised to have sent 

 from South America, not only those tempting species 

 mentioned by Mr. Byam, but also the Oreogallus Dro- 

 Uanus of Gray, or Chao of Central America, (Chao 

 being the native name of what the Spanish Creoles call 

 the Gallina di Monti), and likewise the lovely Ocellated 

 Turkey, of which his lordship possesses a solitary living 

 female specimen. Whether as possible replenishers of 

 the larder, or merely as most elegant additions to the 

 menagerie, all these birds are very earnestly to be 

 desired. 



