ORDER GALLIN^E. 103 



describe one or many circumvolutions, which are all directed 

 on the muscles of the breast, between the integuments imme- 

 diately under the skin. In the curassows alone, it has been 

 observed, that these circumvolutions of the tube of the tra- 

 chea take place at the lower part of the neck, or in the cavity 

 of the thorax. This is pretty nearly the same arrangement 

 as in the males of the genus platalea ; but no species in any 

 of these three genera, has been found, in which the circum- 

 volutions of the tube of the trachea are found in the interior 

 of the bone of the sternum, as is observed to be the case in 

 the greater number of species which compose the genus grus, 

 and in the wild swan {cygnus Jlamrostris). 



A very erroneous opinion has been entertained by some 

 naturalists, that the genera of which we are writing were 

 turkeys or pheasants. This opinion needs no further refuta- 

 tion than the descriptions into which we have already en- 

 tered. The external differences are sufficiently great ; but 

 those which exist in internal structure are still more strongly 

 marked. 



In casting a superficial glance over the birds which com- 

 pose the genera pauxi and curassow, one might be tempted to 

 consider them as belonging to one and the same genus. 

 Accordingly, they have, by almost all systematists, been mis- 

 takenly classed together. In fact, the size and shape of these 

 birds are very similar, their manners are the same, and the 

 predominating colour of the plumage is the same in almost 

 all the species. In fine, there is but little disparity in their 

 habits, and their disposition is equally susceptible of bending 

 to the yoke of domestication. A number of similar charac- 

 ters has prevented naturalists from bestowing their attention 

 on the points of difference. These, it is true, have relation 

 exclusively to different forms in the structure of the bill and 

 nostrils ; but in methodic classification, differences of this 

 kind are of high importance : dissimilarities in the form of 



