Volume 2

The gardens and menagerie of the Zoological Society delineated / published with the sanction of the Council, under the superintendence of the secretary and vice-secretary of the society.

  • Zoological Society of London.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The gardens and menagerie of the Zoological Society delineated / published with the sanction of the Council, under the superintendence of the secretary and vice-secretary of the society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/348 (page 10)
    informs us that they have once at least been thoroughly acclimated in Holland, where they were as prolific, in their domesticated state, as any of our common poultry. The establishment, however, in which this had been effected, was broken up by the civil commotions which followed in the train of the French revolution, and all the pains which had been bestowed upon the education of these birds were lost to the world by their sudden and complete dispersion. The task, which had at that time been in some measure accomplished, still remains to be performed; and it may not be too much to expect that the Zoological Society may be successful in perfecting what was then so well begun, and in naturalizing the Curassows as completely as our ances¬ tors have done the equally exotic, and, in their wild state, much less familiar, breeds of the Turkey, the Guinea-fowl, and the Peacock. Their introduction would certainly be most desirable, not merely on ac¬ count of their size and beauty, but also for the white¬ ness and excellence of their flesh, which is said by those who have eaten of it to surpass that of the Guinea-fowl or of the Pheasant in the delicacy of its flavour. The Curassows give name to one of the primary divisions of the Rasorial Order, but recede from its typical characters in several important particulars. The principal of these occurs in the structure of the hinder toe, which is very long, far more robust than in the common fowl, and placed but little above the level of the anterior portion of the foot. In the remarkable modification which is thus presented in so important a part of the organization of birds, they offer an approxi¬ mation to the Insessorial or Perching Order, which is further confirmed by the habit, connected with this conformation, of perching and building their nests on