114 CLASS AVES. 



In our observations on the genera, or rather subgenera of 

 the family of the Alectors, we have seen a considerable dif- 

 ference in the essential characters of the Hoccos and the 

 Pauxi. We have also remarked the docile disposition of the 

 former, which so much inclines them to domestication. This 

 has occasioned very marked alterations in the colours of their 

 plumage, especially when they were under the superinten- 

 dence of man, and their production regulated by his caprices. 

 The plumage has in that case assumed intermediate colours, 

 in consequence of the necessity to which many breeders have 

 found themselves reduced of coupling different species, not 

 being able to procure two individuals, male or female, of one 

 and the same species. Of the individuals which sprung from 

 these illegitimate alliances, a considerable number proved 

 unfruitful ; others have been fecundated but once, and never 

 produced afterwards. The fewer number have sometimes 

 produced individuals resembling the mother ; but more fre- 

 quently their offspring was decorated with a new plumage, 

 partaking at once of the livery of both species. 



These instances of occasional fecundity in the Hoccos, 

 sprung from illegitimate unions, are by no means exclusively 

 confined to this genus of birds. The gallinaceous order sup- 

 plies us in its other genera with similar examples. The same 

 production is found by experience to take place in the dif- 

 ferent species of pheasants. It is more than probable that 

 many singular races of our cocks and hens, Avhich are pro- 

 pagated at present in greater or less abundance, owe their 

 origin to similar causes. Varieties so marked in the cha- 

 racter and colour of the plumage in our domestic races, are 

 no longer attributed by philosophers to climate, locality, or 

 mere accidental causes. It is no longer believed that a few 

 original species, whose descendants have spread themselves 

 over the earth from the equator to the poles, could have pro- 

 duced those strongly characterized dissimilarities which we 

 constantly observe in individuals of the same species. This 



