GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 



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circumference, and Macgillivray speaks of one of similar height and extent. It is most probable that 

 these mounds are the work of several generations ; whether each mound is resorted to by more than 

 one pair, Mr. Macgillivray had not the means of ascertaining "Some of them," he observes, 

 "are evidently very ancient, trees being often seen growing from their sides. In one instance 

 I found a tree which was a foot in diameter growing from the middle of a mound." The holes 

 containing the eggs sometimes commence at the outer edge of the summit, and slope down obliquely, 

 towards the centre, and sometimes run in an oblique direction from the centre towards the outer slope 

 of the hillock. The eggs lie six feet deep from the summit, but only two or three feet from the side. 

 " The natives," says Gilbert, " dig them up with their hands alone, and only make sufficient room to 

 admit their bodies and to throw out the earth between their legs ; their patience is, however, often 

 put to severe trials, for they often dig down to a depth of six or seven feet without finding an egg, and 

 are quite exhausted by their vain attempts. The eggs are placed in a perpendicular position, the 

 larger end uppermost ; they differ in size, but in form they assimilate ; they are three inches and five 

 lines long, by two inches and three lines broad. The composition of the mound appears to influence 

 the colourmg of a thin epidermis with which the eggs are covered, and which readily chips off, 

 showing the true shell to be white ; those deposited in the black soil are always of a dark reddish 

 brown, while those from the sandy hillocks near the beach are of a dirty yellowish white. The 

 natives affirm that the eggs are deposited at night, at intervals of several days." The exit of the young 

 bird from the egg was not seen either by Macgillivray or Gilbert, but the latter found a young bird 

 in a hole about two feet deep, lying on a few withered leaves, which appeared to be only a few days 

 old. Gilbert took great care of the bird, intending to rear it, and placed it in a moderate-sized box 

 containing a large quantity of sand. It fed freely on bruised corn, but was so wild and intractable 

 that it would not reconcile itself to confinement, and escaped on the third day. While in captivity, it 

 was incessantly occupied in scratching up the sand into heaps, and thromng it from one end of the 

 box to the other with a rapidity quite surprising for so young and small a bird, its size not exceeding 

 that of a small Quail. At night it was so noisy in its efibrts to escape that its captor was kept 

 constantly awake. In scratching up the sand it used only one foot, and having grasped a footful, 

 threw it behind with but little apparent exertion, and without shifting its standing position on the other 

 leg. This habit seemed to be the result of an innate restless disposition, and a desire to use its 

 powerful feet, and to have but litde connection with its feeding, for though IMr. Gilbert mixed Indian 

 corn with the sand, he never detected the bird picking any up while so employed. 



The CURASSOWS, or HOCCOS (CracUiiz), are large or middle-sized birds, with slender 

 bodies, much-rounded wings in which the four or five exterior primaries are graduated, and the 

 secondaries prolonged, and a long powerful tail either slightly graduated or straight at its extremity. 

 The beak, which is of various lengths and comparatively shorter than that of a Pigeon, is curved 

 at the culmen, much hooked at the tip, and covered with a cere which extends over the whole region 

 of the nostrils, and occasionally over the cheek-stripes and the excrescences exhibited by some species 

 at the base of the bill. The rather higit and sinewy foot is furnished with long thin toes placed on 

 the same plane, and armed with narrow, long, pointed, and slightly hooked cla^\■s. The heavy 

 plumage is composed of large feathers, some of which are broadly rounded, and in one family have 

 the shafts of unusual size at the root, but gradually tapering towards the extremity. One species 

 in particular possesses this peculiarity in a high degree, these broad shafts being ten or twenty times 

 as thick at the centre as at the tip, and from six to ten times as thick as at the base, the lower portions 

 of these broad shafts are covered with a downy web, whilst that of the extremity is close in texture. 

 This peculiar structure of the feathers is much developed in the hinder parts of the body, and slightly 



