on being startled in this manner the other day, flew up into a high elm about 100 yards off, ascending to the very top: it was, however, a mere frolic; for on taking his friends, the fowls, to the foot of the tree, he was down in an instant, and quietly followed them home. Both of these are now much heavier than when from the dealer, and with young tail-feathers sprouting abundantly, they having lost the whole of their tails on their journey, being foolishly sent in an absurdly small birdcage."

66

39

The conclusion eventually arrived at by this able coadjutor, if not already anticipated by the reader, may be gathered from this last allusion to them, which we have received: "The Knowsley collection must be well worth seeing; but I was prepared for the account you give of the impracticability of the Cracidæ, and had written to Jamrach to say that he need not trouble about the Guans, but let me know when he had anything else suitable."

The opinion of their impracticability was expressed early in the summer of 1849, after careful inspection and inquiry, and some personal experience; but the reader may be pleased to know, by way of postscript, the substance of some later information with which we have been honoured respecting these birds at Knowsley Park.

In 1849 success was attained in hatching both Guans and Curassows: there were living eight of the latter, and one solitary chick of the Penelope superciliaris; but, at that late period of the year (the middle of September), little hope was entertained of rearing this last. There were indeed hatched ten Curassows (Crax Globicera), but one met with an accident when very young, it is believed from the hen jumping down upon it, so had it lived, it would have been a cripple: the other was nearly grown, and died quite suddenly, as is suspected, from

CHAP. II.]

CHICK OF GUAN.

273

the bad weather which had occurred in that part of England. There is one great peculiarity about these young Curassows-they are perchers almost from the very first, and appear very averse to go under their nurse; even when put under they quickly emerge, and generally try to get on her back; but a perch, even only a few inches from the ground, is their great object. They appear to be (to coin a word) rather of dumetal, than arboreal habits, affecting neither the ground nor yet the tree tops, but something midway between the two.

At Knowsley, during the season of 1850, there have been hatched seven Curassows and two Guans. There have been reared six of the former, five very good birds, and one of the latter now almost full-grown as to wings. The vignette represents a chick of the Penelope superciliaris hatched at Knowsley.

Imaginary and doubtful animals.-Crested Turkeys formerly in Holland.None now produced in English poultry-yards.-Still extant in Central America. Of two kinds.-Not a freak of nature, but distinct species.-Desiderata in our menageries.

So long as a creature is included, by common consent, in the list of fabulous animals-like the Unicorn, the Phoenix, the Salamander, and the Mermaidnaturalists look down upon it with a feeling of complacent contempt. They smile, as they behold its effigy carved in stone or cut on wood: not an incredulous smile, for the question whether such phenomena are credible or not does not dare to intrude itself; but the curiosity is, to their minds, a natural-historical joke— a sort of Blue Lion, or Swan with two necks. Many respectable and intelligent people are apt to be sceptical as to the veracity of the representations of animals hitherto unknown to them. The rude copperplate of the Anhinga, in Willughby, has often been taken for an outline sketch of a bird that never existed. Some animals, however, that for a long period have remained in the condition of zoological outlaws, have at last been restored to their proper place in civilized society. The Dodo, the Giraffe, the Aldrovandine (spicifer) Peafowl, and others, have all passed through this state of temporary rejection. They have been "cut" for a while, but the force of truth and their own merits have rein

CHAP. III.]

FORMERLY IN HOLLAND.

275

stated them into favour. Proper restorations are made to their rightful owners: the Bird of Paradise regains its long-lost legs and feet, and ceases to pass its whole life in unresting flight; the Halcyon has to yield her sea-borne nest, which retires to the bottom of the ocean, and becomes fixed to the rocks in its true character of Neptune's Cup. But when the fabled monster really shows signs of life, we are perplexed as well as delighted. When a thing, which we took to be no better than a made-up popinjay for holiday wits to shoot at, gives tokens of being somewhere in actual existence, we know not what to make of it. And so it is with the Crested Turkey.

For some time, others, as well as myself, had been puzzled by reading in Temminck's "Pigeons et Gallinaceés," a passage, the translation of which follows. "The Crested Turkey is only a variety, or sport of nature, in the species; it only differs in that it has a crest of feathers, sometimes black, sometimes white; and these Crested Turkeys are sufficiently rare. Mademoiselle Backer formerly kept, in her magnificent menagerie near the Hague, a flock of Turkeys of a beautiful Isabelle yellow approaching to chestnut; they all had an ample crest of pure white." Buffon also quotes Albin to a similar effect.

What could this mean? Such instances are zealously sought after by those who wish to exalt the innate, self-moulding powers of organic beings,-the idol Nature, in the atheistical sense-in opposition to the creative providential omnipotence of the Word, in the

* Vol. ii. p. 387.

† See Albin, Natural History of Birds, vol ii. pl. 33.

Christian theological sense. I could not believe in the sport of nature, and did not like to distrust Temminck's veracity, supported too as he is by Albin. But inquire of any clever farmer's wife what she would think, if any one told her that all her neighbour's Turkey-poults grew up this season with large feathered crests on their heads, some black and some white! A pretty freak of nature indeed! She would either laugh, or be angry and affronted from suspicion of a hoax, according as her temper might happen to be. A Turkey's head, with its movable and erigible skin, certainly does not look a likely place for a plume of feathers to start from. Such a lusus has never occurred in the great Turkey-breeding counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire; for the appearance of the monster would be sure to be observed, if it ever took place. So we gave it up, till a valued friend sent us the following extracts from "Wild Life in the Interior of Central America, by Geo. Byam, 43rd Light Infantry":

"There are two species of wild Turkey in Central America, differing widely from each other, both in appearance and value as an article of food. The commonest is the almost black Turkey, with a grey spotted breast and red crest; their form is elegant, and their movements resemble the Peahen: they are abundant near rivers or water, and it is not difficult to bag five or six in a day's shooting: but the flesh is dark and rather coarse when roasted, but makes splendid soup, very like hare-soup, and slices cut raw from the breast and fried in a pan, are capital. They are fond of living in very high trees on the banks of rivers and streams, and do not shun much the ranchos built in the forest.

The other, and much rarer, is a most magnificent