CURASSOW. 153 



tip; sides of the head covered with feathers, and black ; crest white, 

 tipped with black ; the whole of the neck encircled with alternate 

 black and white rings; body and wings red brown; tail the same, 

 crossed with eight or nine yellowish white bars, powdered with minute 

 dusky spots, bounded above and beneath with blackish ; the legs 

 yellowish ; the claws dusky. The gibbosity above mentioned varies 

 greatly in respect to size, being most conspicuous in old birds ; 

 always smaller in the female, and in the young birds very little 

 elevated; the space round the eyes also, not always the same, in 

 some being bare, in others covered with short feathers. 



Inhabit Peru and Mexico, and are kept in a domesticated state 

 in all the warmer parts of America, and the West India Islands, 

 where they become very familiar, and breed freely; but are subject 

 to vary exceedingly in colour, and not unfrequently, by attaching 

 themselves to others of the Genus, produce mongrel birds, differing 

 much from the parent stock. In the mountainous parts they are by 

 no means shy, as they will suffer themselves to be shot at many times, 

 without attempting to escape. They are not unfrequent in our 

 Menageries in England, and readily mix with other poultry, feeding 

 with them, and sometimes breeding ; but this climate does not seem 

 to be warm enough for their nature, nor are they able to bear the 

 dampness of the grass in the meadows, as it renders them subject to 

 have their toes rotted off. In this state they will, however, live for 

 some time, and in one instance the whole of one foot was gone, and 

 but part of one toe left of the other, before the bird died. 



A.—Ind. Orn. ii. 624. /3. Gen. Syn. iv. 693. Var. A. 



In this Variety the neck is alternately white and black as in the 

 last ; the lower belly and vent white ; tail plain brown. 



vol. viii. X 



