ORDKll CALLINiE. 177 



veiling in the sombre and solitary forests of Guiana, when 

 the dawn first commenced to shed a less lugubrious tint, in 

 the midst of those immense trees, which never fall but beneath 

 the axe of time, I have frequently heard a cry perfectly re- 

 sembling the note of our domestic cock, but less powerful and 

 sonorous. The considerable distance from all inhabited places 

 could not permit us to believe that this crowing, which the 

 companions of my journey heard very distinctly, was pro- 

 duced by domestic birds, and the Indians by whom we were 

 followed told us that it was the cry of wild cocks. In one 

 of these journeys, I myself beheld on a mountain a bird 

 about the size of a pigeon, with brown plumage, bearing on 

 its head a fleshy crest, having the wings short, and the tail 

 arranged exactly like that of the hen, whose port and gait it 

 altogether exhibited. I was able to examine it very well, 

 and it did not appear very wild or shy ; the negro who car- 

 ried my fusee had stopped at some distance, and when he 

 rejoined me, the bird was flown into the depth of the forest, 

 and we searched for it to no purpose. 



" This fact, the crowing of the cocks which we heard in 

 the woods, and the knowledge of the wild cock possessed by 

 the natives, left no doubt on my mind, respecting the exis- 

 tence of these cocks in South America ; and I have now 

 put forth what I had the opportunity of ascertaining, without 

 any other pretension than to make known, a mere fact in the 

 natural history of the gallinae." 



Sonnini, moreover, quotes the testimony of a colonist of 

 Guiana, who had acquired a vast deal of local knowledge, 

 concerning that country. M. Salines, major of militia in the 

 colony of Cayenne, relates, that in an excursion which he 

 made into the great forests of Guiana, in 1776» ^^ met, and 

 had quite sufficient time to consider, a bird conformed alto- 

 gether like a hen, similar to the one which Sonnini himself 

 had seen, with the exception of its reddish colour, a little 



VOL. VIII. N 



