12 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



cere and there assumes a bright yellow colour. In 

 size the bird is almost equal to a Turkey. 



This species is a native of Mexico, Guiana, and 

 Brasil, and probably extends itself over a large portion 

 of the southern division of the American Continent. 

 In the woods of Guiana it appears to be so extremely 

 common that M. Sonnini regards it as the most certain 

 resource of a hungry traveller, whose stock of provisions 

 is exhausted, and who has consequently to trust to his 

 gun for furnishing him with a fresh supply. They 

 congregate together in numerous flocks, and appear to 

 be under little or no uneasiness from the intrusion of 

 men into their haunts. Even when a considerable 

 number of them have been shot, the rest remain quietly 

 perched upon the trees, apparently unconscious of the 

 havoc that has been committed among them. This 

 conduct is by no means the result of stupidity, but 

 proceeds rather from the natural tameness and unsus- 

 piciousness of their character. Those, however, which 

 frequent the neighbourhood of inhabited places are said 

 to be much wilder and more mistrustful, being kept 

 constantly on the alert to avoid the pursuit of the 

 hunters who destroy them in great numbers. They 

 build their nests on the trees, forming them externally 

 of branches interlaced with the stalks of herbaceous 

 plants, and lining them internally with leaves. They 

 generally lay but once a year, during the rainy season ; 

 the number of their eggs being, according to Sonnini, 

 five or six, and to D'Azara as many as eight. They 

 are nearly as large as those of a Turkey, but are white 

 like a Hen's, and with a thicker shell. 



Of their domesticated habits, and of several other 

 points connected with their history, we shall give some 

 account when we come to speak of the other species in 

 the Collection, 



