POULTRY, EISTORY, ETC, 
403 
similar to that of our cocks, but only weaker. The considerable distance 
which separated me from eveiy inhabited place, could not allow one to 
think this crowing produced by domesticated birds ; and tho natives of 
those parts, who were In -company with me, assured me it was the noise 
of wild cocks. Every one of the colony of Cayenne, who has gone very 
far up the country, gives the same account of these wild fowl. I have 
seen one myself. They have tho same forms, tho fleshy comb on the 
Bead, the gait of our fowls, only that they are smaller, being hardly 
larger than the common pigeon ; their plumage is brown or rufous. 
HEAD OP 6IXGLE-WATTLED BRAHMA FOWL. 
HEAD OP BREDA, OR GCELDRE. 
Before this the wild fowls of America had been mentioned. Tho 
Spaniard, Acosta, provincial of the Jesuits of Peru, has positively said 
that fowls existed there before the arrival of his countrymen, and that 
they were called in the language of the country, talpa , and their egg 3 
ponlo. Wo are not awaro that this species has ever been brought into a 
Btate of domesticity, or that the wild species has ever been taken and 
reared. The wilds of the great South American forests are yet as a 
teealed book, in many respects, to tho naturalist. Under the regime of 
tho present practical and scholarly Emperor, this, in Brazil, is being 
changed, and gradually this immense territory will bo made to yield not 
only increased stores to our ornithological knowledge, but also in other 
departments of practical art and science. 
Our domestic poultry may be divided into four groqps, each of which 
will be separately considered. 
