. Cuvier's animal kingdom : arranged according to its organization. Animals. 224 AVES. lated; and they can only be subdivided upon characters of trivial import, drawn from some of the appendages of the head. In order to avoid, however, an excessive multiplication of groups, we associate with them certain genera the toes of which have no connecting membrane, and one (that of the Pigeons) which links the Poultry with the Passerina, the others (such as the Ploazin) presenting a slight approach to the Touracos ; [very shght and superficial in both instances]. The Curassows {Alector, Merrem)â Are l
. Cuvier's animal kingdom : arranged according to its organization. Animals. 224 AVES. lated; and they can only be subdivided upon characters of trivial import, drawn from some of the appendages of the head. In order to avoid, however, an excessive multiplication of groups, we associate with them certain genera the toes of which have no connecting membrane, and one (that of the Pigeons) which links the Poultry with the Passerina, the others (such as the Ploazin) presenting a slight approach to the Touracos ; [very shght and superficial in both instances]. The Curassows {Alector, Merrem)â Are large Poultry-birds of South America, which somewhat resemble Turkeys, and have a broad and rounded tail, composed of large stiff quills, [fourteen in number]. Several of them possess a siugular conformation of the trachea. They live in the woods, feed on buds and fruit, perch and nestle upon trees, [their hind-toe being on the same plane with those in front], and are very sociable and easily domesticated. [The sternum has its inner emargination less deep than in other Poultry]. Gmelin and Latham have divided them into Curassows and Guans, but upon very indeterminate characters. We subdivide them in tlie following manner :â The Curassows, properly so called, {Crax, Lin.),â Have a strong beak, its base surrounded by a skin, sometimes brightly coloured, in which the nostrils are pierced ; and their head is adorned with a crest of long, erectible, narrow feathers, curled at the tips. Their size is that of a Turkey, and like the members of that genus they fly up into trees. They are bred in a domestic state in America, and individuals have been received from that country so variously coloured, that we hesitate about characterizing the species. The most common, or the Yellow-billed Cu- rassow (Cr. alector, Lin.), is black, with a white belly, and cere of the beak brilliant yellow. The trachea makes but one slight curve before it enters the breast. Some, as Cr. globicera, Lin., hav
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