ORDER GALLINJ5. 109 



bears the name of Mutao Pinime ; and, according to M. 

 D"'Azara, that of Mitu in Paraguay. 



M. Temminck also points out as synonyms of Crax AlectoTy 

 the Mitouporanga of Margrave, the Craw Guianensis of 

 Brisson, the Poes of Frisch, the Coq Indien of the Memoirs 

 of the Academy of Sciences, and the Peacock Pheasant of 

 Bancroft. 



M. Sonnini, in the new edition of Buffon, has published 

 some interesting details concerning this bird. That natu- 

 ralist possessed ample opportunities of seeing it in its wild 

 state in French Guiana, and we shall freely avail ourselves of 

 his observations. 



The Crested Curassow of Guiana, says this writer, adds to a 

 simple but elegant dress, mild and social manners. Its flesh 

 presents an aliment equally wholesome and savoury, which 

 proves an abundant and easy resource for the tables of the 

 colonists of South America, and especially for the subsistence 

 of travellers who penetrate into the immense forests of this 

 quarter of the globe. These good qualities render its his- 

 tory of sufficient interest to attempt to make it better known 

 than it has hitherto been. Not but that it has been mentioned 

 by ornithologists ; but in copying successively from each 

 other, they have added nothing to the indications of earlier 

 writers : for we cannot reckon as any thing those arbitrary 

 denominations, those phrases, which have nothing scientific, 

 and which have served rather to retrograde the science of 

 nature, than to accelerate its progress. 



The race of the Crested Curassow is permanent ; and 

 though very numerous in French Guiana, it is the same in 

 all the individuals. This species inhabits, in numerous flocks, 

 the immense forests with which this country is almost entirely 

 overshadowed. But these birds have nothing wild or savage 

 about them but their dwelling : mildness and tranquillity 

 constitute their character : and they seem neither to fear, nor 



