4 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



the upper mandible becomes arched towards the point, 

 and terminates in a strong and well curved hook. The 

 basal half is of an ash-brown, and the remaining portion 

 towards the point is nearly white. The head and neck 

 are bare of feathers, and covered with a hard, wrinkled, 

 dusky reddish skin, on which are scattered some short 

 brown or blackish hairs. On the top of the head, 

 which is much flattened above, and extending some 

 distance along the beak, is attached an oblong, firm 

 caruncle or comb, covered by a continuation of the 

 skin which invests the head. This organ is peculiar 

 to the male. It is connected to the beak only in its 

 anterior part, and is separated from it at the base in 

 such a manner as to allow of a free passage of the air 

 to the large oval nostrils, which are situated beneath 

 it at that part. Behind the eyes, which are somewhat 

 elonoated and not sunk beneath the o-eneral surface of 

 the head, the skin of the neck is, as it were, gathered 

 into a series of descending folds, extending obliquely 

 from the back of the head, over the temples, to the 

 under side of the neck, and there connected anteriorly 

 with a lax membrane or wattle, capable of being dilated 

 at pleasure, like that of the Common Turkey. The 

 neck is marked by numerous deep parallel folds, pro- 

 duced by the habit of retracting the head in which the 

 bird indulges when at rest. In this position scarcely 

 any part of the neck is visible. 



Round the lower part of the neck both sexes, the 

 female as well as the male, are furnished with a broad 

 white ruff" of dovniy feathers, which forms the line of 

 separation between the naked skin above and the true 

 feathers covering the body below it. All the other 

 feathers, with the exception of the wing-coverts and 

 the secondary quill-feathers, are of a bright black, 

 generally mingled with a grayish tinge of greater or 



