ORNITHOLOGY. 



605 



Rasores. heart and eagle eye," descending swift and sure, like thun- 

 "*— y— - ' der-bolt from heaven ! What are each or all of these in 

 dread array, with death itself, to her at other times a fear- 

 ful creature, but now pervaded by the deep intensity of 

 mother love ? Who knoweth not these things may have 

 wandered far through wood and wilderness, up vast and 

 lonely mountains, in moist and green savannahs, o'er dry 

 and desert sands, — but he has never turned a kindly and 

 considerate eye towards perhaps the too familiar features 

 of some lowly farm-stead close by his early home. Yet to 

 such thoughts the mind, in those that loved them once, not 

 seldom turns. The hoary worn-out warrior, with " scars 

 entrenched," and decked with emblems of the blood-stain- 

 ed field, — the smooth but hollow statesman, gorgeous on 

 gala days in regal throngs, — the lawyer with insidious 

 tongue, by which the worse is made the better reason, — 

 the nabob " with visage discomposed," sallow as his gold 

 (his heart as pure ?), — the soft physician, with stilly foot 

 and ever ready palm, — the merchant prince dreaming of 

 " Tyre and Sidon," of freighted vessels, and " the injuri- 

 ous sea," — think they not often of their boyish years, when 

 one bright summer day seemed like a century of such de- 

 light as all their best planned schemes of proud ambition 

 since then have yielded never ? But in these fantastic 

 thoughts forget we not our gallinaceous order ? 



The male, though somewhat less assiduous than the fe- 

 male, continues to manifest a certain degree of parental 

 solicitude, by uttering the alarm note on the approach of 

 birds of prey, or other dangerous foes. Black game and 

 wood grouse, however, do not seem to pair at all, but in the 

 genial spring a male assembles round him a certain num- 

 ber of devoted females, which afterwards deposit their 

 eggs, and rear their young altogether independent of the 

 male parent. These birds are therefore polygamous in 

 the proper acceptation of the term. Indeed, even among 

 herbivorous quadrupeds pairing is rare, because the female 

 can suckle her young while she herself is feeding ; — but 

 the monogamous habit probably obtains among most carni- 

 vorous quadrupeds, and certainly among all carnivorous 

 birds, because incubation leaves the female no sufficient 

 time to hunt for food, 1 and because young birds cannot 

 bear a long fast, and therefore require the assistance of 

 both 'parents while unable to provide for themselves. 

 i An extraordinary circumstance has been observed in 

 the females of certain genera of this order, viz. an assump- 

 tion of the male plumage after a certain period of lite. 

 We believe it to be a fact in the natural history of com- 

 mon poultry, that all hen-birds which either by accident 

 or design have been allowed to attain the age of sixteen 

 years complete, have been observed to assume the plumage 

 of cocks ! The same change has been seen to take place 

 both in the female pheasant and the pea-hen, but at more 

 indeterminate periods of life, and less in connection with 

 an advanced age. Though these facts have not escaped 

 the observation of the philosophical naturalist, yet the 

 different circumstances attending their occurrence have 

 not been detailed with sufficient frequency or fulness to 

 admit of any satisfactory theory being offered in their ex- 

 planation. 2 We shall conclude these general remarks by 

 observing, that the gallinaceous order, with the exception 

 of the pigeon tribe, and the genus Opisthocomus (Jhaozin, 

 BufFon), which certainly offer some very 'anomalous cha- 

 racters, is naturally and consistently composed. We shall 

 now proceed to a brief notice of the principal genera. 



The birds known by the general name of Alectors are 

 species of large size from South America, somewhat allied 

 to turkeys. Their tails are broad and rounded, and com- 

 posed of large stiff feathers. They inhabit woods, living 

 on fruits and buds, perching and building their nests on 



trees, and dwelling gregariously in love and amity. They Rasores. 

 are known under the by no means euphonious names of v *~ ~v"~- 

 hoccos and jacous (words which we shall not pronounce ex- 

 cept when necessary), and are arranged as follows by Ba- 

 ron Cuvier. The hoccos properly so called, which are also 

 known as curassoes (genus Cr ax, Linn., Plate CCCXCVIII. 

 fig. 1), have the bill strong, and its base surrounded by a 

 skin sometimes of lively colour, and containing the nostrils. 

 The head is ornamented by a tuft of long, narrow, recurved 

 feathers. The most common kind is the Crax alector, or 

 crested curasso, which was at one time almost completely 

 acclimated in Holland, where they were as prolific as com- 

 mon poultry. It is so frequent in the woods of Guiana as 

 to form, according to M. Sonnini, the surest resource 

 of every hungry traveller whose stock of provisions may 

 be found exhausted, and who has therefore become de- 

 pendent on his gun. They are gregarious, and even when 

 a considerable number have been shot, the rest will re- 

 main quietly perched, as if unconscious of the surrounding 

 slaughter. Several other species are described in syste- 

 matic works. C. globicera is distinguished by a large 

 rounded tubercle on the base of the upper mandible. 



In the genus Ourax, Cuv., the bill is shorter and thicker, 

 with its basal membrane, as well as the greater portion of 

 the head, covered with short, velvety feathers. (Plate 

 CCCXCVIII. fig. 2.) Here is placed the Ourax pauxi 

 {Crax pauxi, Linn.), or galeated curasso, a large turkey- 

 like bird, with plumage of a shining black with green re- 

 flections, the abdomen and under tail-coverts white. At 

 the base of the beak is a great oval tubercle, of a pale 

 blue colour, and as hard as stone. The structure or posi- 

 tion of the windpipe is peculiar. " Sa trachee," says Cu- 

 ( vier, " descend dehors, le long du cote droit jusqu'en ar- 

 riere du sternum, se recourbe vers le cote gauche, et re- 

 vient en avant pour rentrer dans la poitrine par la four- 

 chette. Tous ces anneaux sont comprimes." This species 

 is a native of Mexico, where it lives gregariously, perching 

 on trees, but building usually on the ground, and leading 

 about its young after the manner of the pheasant and com- 

 mon hen. It is easily domesticated. 



The guans or yacous, genus Penelope of Merrem, have 

 the bill more slender than the preceding, with a bare space 

 around the eye, and on the lower part of the throat, — the 

 latter generally capable of inflation. The individuals of 

 the same species seem to vary considerably, so that many 

 doubtful kinds have been described by naturalists. The 

 guan, commonly so called (Pen. cristata, Gmelin), is the 

 largest of the genus, measuring about thirty inches in total 

 length. The whole upper surface of the body is of a dusky 

 black or bronze colour, glossed with green and olive. The 

 feathers on the back of the head form a thick erectile crest. 

 The fore part of the neck and breast are spotted with white, 

 each feather being surrounded by a white border. The 

 naked part of the throat is bright scarlet, with a depend- 

 ing fold of the same colour. The manners of this bird re- 

 semble those of the curassoes. They search for food along 

 the ground, but perch and build upon the tops of trees. 

 They are less gregarious, generally keeping together in 

 pairs, and remarkable, it is said, for the strictest constancy, 

 and their strong attachment to each other, — being thus 

 deserving of the name they bear, that of the devoted con- 

 sort of Ulysses. 



The genus Ortilda of Merrem scarcely differs from 

 the preceding, except in having a much smaller portion bare 

 around the eye and throat. We are acquainted with only 

 a single species, the Phasianus motmot of Gmelin (Pkas, 

 parragua, Lath.). Its voice is very strong, and the wind- 

 pipe descends beneath the skin towards the abdomen, and 

 then remounts into the chest. The plumage is of a bronzed 



See Karnes's Sketches. 



2 Wilson's Illustrations of Zoology, vol. i. Order Galling. 



