THE SAVAGE WORLD. 
361 
HOKKO HEN. 
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77X. 
It is rather a gregarious bird, assembling in flocks, led by a few adult males 
in their full plumage, and a great number of young males and females. They 
are said to migrate from the Murrumbidgee in the 
summer and to return in the autumn. 
The plumage of the adult male is a very glossy 
satin-like purple, so deep as to appear black in a 
faint light, but the young males and females are 
almost entirely of an olive-green. 
The Spotted Bower Bird (Chlamydera macu - 
lata) differs from the former species only in the col¬ 
oring of its plumage, its habits being substantially 
the same. 
GALLINACEOUS BIRDS (Galling). 
Under the classification technically known as the 
gallincB (which is a Latin word meaning hens) are 
grouped all varieties of our domestic poultry, and also 
the scrapers , or those species which are in the habit of 
scratching the ground in search of food, such as the 
pheasant, grouse, quails, turkeys and many other 
useful and interesting game-birds. 
The Crested Curassow or Hokko Hen (Crax 
alector) is one of the most magnificent species of gallinaceous birds, almost 
rivalling the peacock in 
brilliancy of plumage, 
which is of a deep black, 
with a slight gloss of green 
upon the head, crest, neck, 
back, wings and upper 
part of the tail, and dull 
white beneath and on the 
lower tail-coverts. Its crest 
is from two to three inches 
in length, and occupies the 
whole upper surface of the 
head; it is curled and vel¬ 
vety in its appearance, and capable of being raised or depressed 
at will, in accordance with the temporary feelings by which the 
bird is actuated. The eyes are surrounded by a naked skin, 
p which extends into the cere and there assumes a bright yellow 
•|j&; color. In size the bird is almost equal to a turkey. This spe- 
cies is a native of Mexico, Guiana and Brazil, and probably 
extends itself over a large portion of the southern division of the 
American continent. In the woods of Guiana it appears to be so 
extremely common that M. Sonnini regards it as the most certain 
resource of a hungry traveller, whose stock of provisions is 
exhausted, and who has consequently to trust to his gun for fur¬ 
nishing him with a fresh supply. They congregate together in 
numerous flocks, and appear to be under little or no uneasiness 
from the intrusion of men into their haunts. Even when a considerable 
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GOLDEN PHEASANT. 
