108 CLASS AVES. 



Rubra (Tern.) are very frequently the mixed production of 

 these three sjDecies ; for in the Dutch menageries, the male of 

 one of these species has been repeatedly employed to repro- 

 duce with the females of another. 



We shall now briefly notice what is interesting in the 

 species of these three genera, beginning with the curassows. 



The Crax Alector has been the species of this genus most 

 frequently brought into Europe, and the one whose spoils 

 have been by far the most numerous in public and private 

 collections. It has been considered by some naturalists, who 

 would not admit more than one species in this genus, as the 

 type of all those varieties which have been enumerated. Some 

 authors have even supposed that the varieties in question 

 were only those of sex. The Pauwi Mitu, for example, has 

 stood in the list of the varieties of the male ; and the Coxolitli 

 (Ci-ax Rubra) in those of the female of Crax Alector. 



Many living individuals of this species have been brought 

 into Holland, and formerly reproduced there in many mena- 

 geries, particularly in that of M. Ameshoff, already men- 

 tioned. That amateur succeeded in rendering this species 

 and that of Crax Pauxi, as productive as his turkeys and 

 peacocks. When M. Temminck, however, wrote his natural 

 history of the gallinae, no more of these birds existed in his 

 native country. The loss of such useful birds, as a resource 

 both of subsistence and of luxury, is attributed by this 

 naturalist to the devastating spirit of the revolution, which 

 was the fruitful parent of so many other evils. 



The greatest number of these curassows thus imported 

 into Holland came from Dutch Guiana. These individuals, 

 whose spoils may now be seen in many modern collections of 

 natural history, do not differ from those sent from the French 

 colonies, nor from those of Brazil. We are assured by tra- 

 vellers that the species is equally extended in Mexico, where 

 it is designated by the name of Tepetotl. In Brazil it 



