228 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



these birds may have given rise to partial changes in 

 their outward form. But the internal conformation is 

 rarely affected by such circumstances, and the form of 

 the windpipe differs so remarkably in all the species of 

 Curassows that have yet been examined, that we should 

 anticipate from an inspection of that organ a complete 

 confirmation, or a decided contradiction, of our present 

 opinion. In the mean time we may be permitted to 

 add that we scarcely entertain a doubt that the former 

 would be the result. 



The handsome adult specimen on which we have 

 founded our belief has been for nearly three years an 

 inhabitant of the Society's Garden. At the period of 

 its introduction it was probably about the same age as 

 the oldest of three individuals now in the Menagerie of 

 the Tower. It is nearly equal in size to the Crested 

 Curassow, and consequently somewhat inferior to the 

 Globose species ; but exactly agrees with both those 

 birds in the colouring of its plumage, which is entirely 

 of a deep glossy black, with the exception of the under 

 surface of the body behind the legs, and the posterior 

 part of the legs themselves, where the feathers are pure 

 white. Its crest too is in all respects similar to that of 

 the more common birds. But its cere, instead of being- 

 yellow, as in those species, is deep crimson, surmounted 

 by an elevated prominence much inferior in size to that 

 of the Globose Curassow, and enlarged beneath, on 

 either side of the lower mandible, by a peculiar gibbous 

 projection, which is not met with in any other species. 

 The space too between the eyes and the base of the 

 bill is occupied by a line of feathers, leaving the naked 

 skin surrounding the eyes of the same deep black with 

 the plumage of the head, from which it is hardly to be 

 distinguished. 



Like the young individuals at the Tower, the Society's 



