47 
as large as a guinea-fowl, will give you an idea of a bird for which 
we have made arrangements to procure a supply from New Guinea 
and Java, sufficient to establish it wild in the country. The two 
species of Curassow from the warmer parts of South America which 
you see before you (Cntx aleclor, and Pauxi metu), as large as small 
turkeys, and equally good for the table, have already been introduced 
by the society in some numbers, and have been distributed to such 
members of the society as keep poultry, in hopes that some of them 
may succeed in breeding the birds (as was formerly done in Holland), 
so as to increase the stock to such an extent that large numbers might 
be turned loose in the warmer parts of the colony. The common 
pheasant, of which a Victorian-bred specimen is on the table, has been 
« introduced in large numbers by the society, and we may claim to have 
already acclimatised it. They have bred abundantly with Mr. Austin, 
at Barwon Park ; Mr. Chirnside, at Wyndham ; Mr. Lyall, at Prog- 
more ; and at the Botanic Gardens; and have been liberated at 
Philip Island and other islands at Western Port, and on Mr. Henty’s 
country at Portland, where he reports their satisfactory increase in the 
wild state. The English common partridge has now also been accli¬ 
matised ; it is in numbers in the neighbourhood of Mr. Austin’s pro¬ 
perty, at Barwon Park; and large numbers which are on their way 
out to us, shipped by our president Mr. Edward Wilson, will be liber¬ 
ated when they have recovered from the voyage, in large numbers in 
the islands of Western Port, and several suitable localities on the 
mainland; so that after very few years we may let, at certain seasons, 
the sportsmen indulge their bumps of destruction to at least at 
moderate extent on them. A large shipment of the red-legged or 
Guernsey partridge (specimens of which are also on the table) has 
been likewise ordered ; and this finer, stronger, and larger bird will 
be liberated in the wanner, more northern parts of the colony. And, 
as showing that no part of the colony has been neglected, we 
made arrangements for procuring in largo numbers, for the 
cold lofty mountains of Gipps Land, those magnificent birds 
which you see before you — the impeyan or monal pheasant 
(Lophophorus iinpeyanus), the most splendid of all the game 
birds ; the cheer pheasant ( Catreus wallichi) ; the purple kaleege 
(Gallophasis Horsjieldi) ; the black-backed kaleege [G. melanotus) ; 
and the white-crested kaleege (G. albocristatus), from the Himalaya 
Mountains, a little below the snow line. All of these birds have been 
bred successfully by the Zoological Society of London of late years, 
in numbers, and rejoice in a 'climate like that of the Highlands 
of Scotland, although their brilliant plumage looks more like that 
