NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 135 



The hoco goes by different names : it is called curasso in Brazil, and in Surinam it is 

 called the powesa, and peacock pheasant; it is about the size of a common turkey ; is a 

 beautiful bird; the flesh is excellent; it is the eras alector of Linnseu-i. Scudder has a 

 beautiful specimen in his museum. It is sold at Paramariebo for more than a guinea 

 a-piece, and it ought to be naturalized here. 



The Peruvian hen, or crax rubra, has been introduced into England. The flesh is 

 white, and esteemed good. The climate of that country is supposed not to be warm 

 enough for it, as the toes are apt to rot off. Beside these, there are in Guiana and 

 Brazil, a new species of dunghill hens from the interior, the yacon of Cayenne, which is 

 larger than a fowl, and breeds in a domestic state, the dindon, or meleagris cristata of 

 Linnaeus, which inhabits Brazil, where it is tamed, and the flesh is much liked ; the 

 parraka of Buffbn, and hannaquam of Bancroft, the size of a small fowl, its flesh good, 

 and it is in a domestic state ; and also le marail of Buffon, and marrodee of Bancroft, 

 about the dimensions of a fowl. I am not certain but that some of these are the game 

 bird under a different name. If our climate is too cold for them, they may answer in the 

 southern states. 



It may also be considered a general rule that all birds of the Columba genus may be 

 domesticated. Our poultry may, in this respect, be greatly improved, not only in 

 variety, but in size. 



The great crowned Indian pigeon (Columba coronata) has been brought to Europe 

 alive from the East Indies, where it is kept as domestic poultry. It is as large as a 

 turkey. 



In Java, Celebes, and Ceylon, there are eighteen or twenty species of wood pigeons, 

 some of which are as large as a small hen. 



We have no pheasant in this country. Governor Wentworth, of New Hampshire, 

 brought several pairs of pheasants from England, and let them fly in his woods at Wolf- 

 borough, but they have not since been seen. It is the phasianus Colchicus of Linnseus, 

 is the size of a fowl, and produces cross breeds with hens ; this production is supposed to 

 be the origin of the game cock. It appears from Hartlib's Legacy that in 1650 these 

 birds were kept tame in great numbers, and he mentions a lady who raised two hundred 

 one spring. 



The China pheasant (phasianus pictus) is a hardy, beautiful bird, and might be easily 

 naturalized : it breeds with common pheasants. Scudder has a bird of this kind, and the 

 golden pheasant of the same country, in his museum. The golden pheasant, and a phea- 

 sant called the ring pheasant, a variety of the common one, have been found at large in 

 England. 



