276 ME. P. L. SCLATEE ON THE CUEASSOWS 



2. Ceax DAUBENTONi. (Plates XLI. d, XLII. S .) 



Hocco, Faisan de la Guiane, Buff. PI. Enl. 86. 



Crax daubentoni, G. E. Gray, List of Gall. p. 15 (1867), et Hand-1. ii. p. 253 ; Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S. 



1870, p. 516, et Nomencl. p. 135 ; Sclat. P. Z. S. 1870, p. 671. 

 Crax aldrovandi, Eeichenb. Tauten, p. 134, tab. 2736. f. 5038 ( d) et tab. 273. f. 1518 ( 2 ). 

 Crax globicera, Temm. Hist. Nat. des Gall. iii. pp. 12 et 686; Eeichenb. Taub. p. 133, tab. 273. 



f. 1517. 

 Crax mikani s , Pelzeln, Orn. Bras. p. 343 ( ? ) . 



Nitenti-nigra : ventre imo et caudse apice albis : cristse elongatse plumis nigria 

 lecurvis : loris plumosis : cera tuberculata et mandibula utrinque ad basin carunculata 

 flavis: pedibus nigricantibus : long, tota 32, alae 15'5, caudse 14, tarsi 4'5. Fern, marl 

 similis, sed crista ad basin albo obsolete fasciata : ventre et tibiis albo transfasciolatis : 

 cera et rostro nigris. 



Hah. Venezuela, near Caracas (Levraud) ; Tucacas ( Wright and Warmington). 



This Curassow was confounded by the older authors with C. globicera ; and it must 

 always, perhaps, remain somewhat of an open question to which bird that name should 

 in strict propriety be applied. Mr. Gray first correctly associated the two sexes of the 

 present bird, and in his ' List of Gallinee ' gave the name daubentoni to it, in consequence 

 of the male being figured by Daubenton as the Hocco, Faisan de la Guiane, in the 

 ' Planches Enluminces.' This species and its northern representative are certainly 

 close allies, the chief difference between the two males consisting in the present bird 

 having broad white tips to the rectrices. But the females, it will be observed, are very 

 diff'erent. 



The forest-region of Venezuela is the only locality which I know of for this Curassow. 

 M. Levraud transmitted specimens of it in his extensive collection from Caracas, which 

 I have examined at Paris. In 1870 we received our first living pair of this species, 

 fi-om Mr. James Wright, who obtained them from near Tucacas in Venezuela. In the 

 following year Mr. A. Warmington was kind enough to bring us a male and two 

 females from the same port, and to furnish me with the following notes on the 

 subject. 



" The three Curassows (one male and two females) were captured at ' Maron ' near 

 Tucacas, N. Venezuela, and at the present time are nearly two years old, having 

 been taken from the nest when scarcely larger than a chick of two months old. They 

 soon became perfectly tame, and would follow me about. When able to fly they made 

 short flights, always quickly returning, and seldom alighting. At night they invariably 

 roosted on the highest spot they could find in the home corral. They are called by 

 the natives 'Peru.' Their cry is a sort of mournful prolonged whistle, and in the 

 forest, when eight or ten are together, has a very singular effect. It is not common to 

 see these birds on the ground. When they alight in a tree they almost invariably 

 utter their cry, and at the same time raise the tail-feathers fan-like, thus exposing the 



