110 CLASS AVES. 



even to be acquainted with danger ; careless, to all appear- 

 rance, of the preservation of their existence, they do not fly 

 from the occasions of losing it. The naturalist from whom 

 this account is derived, has often found himself in the midst 

 of considerable flocks of these peaceable birds, which his 

 presence did not appear in the least to intimidate. This care- 

 lessness on their part afibrds the greatest facility to their 

 destruction ; numbers of them may be killed even with fire- 

 arms, without any endeavour on their side to escape, other- 

 wise than by flying from one tree to another. 



Such is the character of these birds in those mighty soli- 

 tudes, where, having nothing to dread, they must naturally be 

 without suspicion. But with the small number which are 

 found in the neighbourhood of human habitations, the case 

 is very different : they become wild and distrustful ; any 

 thing disturbs and inquiets them ; the least noise makes them 

 betake themselves to flight. This continual agitation, and 

 the frequent necessity of a prompt retreat, will not permit 

 them to assemble in great numbers, and, accordingly, no more 

 than two or three are ever seen together. 



D'Azara says, that in Paraguay these curassows are never 

 seen but in pairs, which is probably occasioned by the fre- 

 quent attacks to which they are subjected in the environs 

 of inhabited places. 



In the same manner as almost all the birds which inhabit 

 these southern countries, the curassows have no particularly 

 fixed time for breeding ; it is however rather in the rainy 

 season, which lasts from seven to eight months in Guiana, 

 than during the dry season, that they employ themselves in 

 the propagation of their species. They have commonly but 

 a single brood in the year. They show little art or industry 

 in the construction of their nests, place them on some dry 

 branches, in which they interweave in a rude manner some 

 blades of grass, and furnish the bottom with leaves. Here 



