THE CURASSOW. 



An interesting race of birds, known as 

 the Curassows, has its range throughout 

 that part of South America, east of the 

 Andes Mountain range and north of 

 Paraguay. All the species are confined 

 to this region except one, which is found 

 in Central America and Mexico. This is 

 the bird of our illustration (Crax globi- 

 cera). 



The Curassows belong to the order of 

 Gallinaceous birds and bear the same re- 

 lation to South America that the pheas- 

 ants and grouse bear to the Old 

 World. They are in every respect the 

 most important and the most perfect 

 game birds of the district which they in- 

 habit. In all there are twelve species 

 placed under four genera. As the hind 

 toes of the feet are placed on a level with 

 the others they resemble the pigeon and 

 are unlike many of the other gallinaceous 

 birds. 



The Curassows are very large and 

 rather heavy birds and some of them are 

 larger than our turkey. They have short 

 wings and a strong bill. At the base of 

 the upper mandible and on the upper side 

 there is a large tubercle-like excrescence 

 which is of a yellow color and quite hard. 

 Upon the head, there is a gracefully 

 arched crest of feathers which is made of 

 curled feathers, the tips of which are 

 white in some of the species. This crest 

 can be lowered or raised at the will of the 

 bird. The plumage of the species illus- 

 trated is a beautiful and velvety black, ex- 

 cept the white on the lower portion of the 

 body. It is said that their motions are 

 much more graceful than are those of our 

 common domestic turkey. "They live in 

 small flocks, and are arboreal in their 

 habits, only occasionally descending to 



the ground, while roosting and building 

 their nests on the branches of trees." The 

 nests are large and made of twigs and 

 willowy branches held in place by the 

 stems of grasses, which are neatly inter- 

 woven between them. The nest is lined 

 with down, feathers and leaves. 



It is said that they are easily domesti- 

 cated and that in some parts of South 

 America they may be found in tame 

 flocks around the homes of the planters. 

 One authority states that at about the be- 

 ginning of the present century a large 

 number of Curassows were taken from 

 Dutch Guiana to Holland, where they be- 

 came- thoroughly domesticated, breeding 

 as readily as any other kind of domestic 

 poultry. Though a tropical bird, it would 

 seem that they might be acclimatized. 

 They would certainly form a valuable ad- 

 dition to the list of our farm fowls, for 

 their flesh is said to be "exceedingly white 

 and delicate." 



The female is not as large as the male 

 and is usually reddish in color. Their 

 food consists almost entirely of fruit and 

 insects. 



About the middle of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury Eleazar Albin wrote "A Natural 

 History of Birds," in which he gives a 

 very interesting account of the Curassow 

 and an excellent illustration of the bird. 

 He says : "I took a pourtray of this bird 

 at Chelmsford in Essex ; it was very tame 

 and sociable, eating and drinking with 

 any company. The Cock I had of a man 

 from the West Indies. They are gen- 

 erally brought from Carasow, from 

 whence they take their Name. They are 

 called by the Indians Tecuecholi, Moun- 

 tain-Bird or American Pheasant." 



146 



