10 



ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



informs us that they have once at least been thoroughly 

 acclimated in Holland, where they were as prolific, in 

 their domesticated state, as any of our common poultry. 

 The establishment, however, in which this had been 

 effected, was Ijroken up by the civil commotions which 

 followed in the train of the French revolution, and all 

 the pains which had been bestowed upon the education 

 of these birds were lost to the world by their sudden 

 and complete dispersion. The task, wdiich had at that 

 time been in some measure accomplished, still remains 

 to be performed ; and it may not be too much to 

 expect that the Zoological Society may be successful 

 in perfecting what was then so well begun, and in 

 naturalizing the Curassows as completely as our ances- 

 tors have done the equally exotic, and, in their wild 

 state, much less familiar, breeds of the Turkey, the 

 Guinea-fowl, and the Peacock. Their introduction 

 would certainly be most desirable, not merely on ac- 

 count of their size and beauty, but also for the white- 

 ness and excellence of then- flesh, which is said by 

 those who have eaten of it to surpass that of the 

 Guinea-fowl or of the Pheasant in the delicacy of its 

 flavour. 



The Curassows give name to one of the primary 

 divisions of the Rasorial Order, but recede from its 

 typical characters in several important particulars. The 

 principal of these occurs in the structure of the hinder 

 toe, which is very long, far more robust than in the 

 common fowl, and placed but little above the level of 

 the anterior portion of the foot. In the remarkable 

 modification which is thus presented in so important a 

 part of the organization of birds, they offer an approxi- 

 mation to the Insessorial or Perching Order, which is 

 further confirmed by the habit, connected with this 

 conformation, of perching and building their nests on 



