take some few years' careful selection to obtain the required markings of the cocks in a perfect state.

Several distinct varieties exist in the smaller forms known as Bantams; the Japanese (fig. 19) is one of the most strongly characterized, the tail being of large size, the legs short, and the breast very prominent. The Japanese Bantam

Fig. 19.

Japanese Bantam.

shows that, in spite of the difficulty, colour can be localized in the fowl-the tails of many of these birds being black, the remainder of the plumage white. In breeding Pigeons nothing is easier than to localize colour, and to breed birds with black tails and white bodies, or yellow wings on a white ground &c., as may be desired; but in fowls such feats in breeding are very difficult and of rare accomplishment-facts,

the solution of which depends on what Darwin termed analogous variation. In many species of Columbine birds the colour is localized; white heads, for example, exist in nature in many species, but in the wild Galli and allied species no such arrangements of colours are known, hence the difficulty of producing such patterns in the varieties of the G. ferrugineus.

The singular effect produced by the shafts of all the bodyfeathers being curved from, instead of towards, the body is shown in the Frizzled fowls (fig. 20), which may be produced

of any size or colour. The breed is not in high favour, being especially delicate, owing to the rain at once penetrating to the skin in place of running off the plumage.

The illustrations show the most important breeds exhibited at the show held in the Gardens of the Zoological Society. Some few characteristic varieties were not entered, such as the long-tailed breeds of Japan, in which the sickle-feathers

of the tail attain a length of six, seven, or even more feet. In these instances the growth must be continuous for many months to attain the unusual length.

In the so-called Silk fowl the feathers have the barbs entirely disconnected, so that the birds have a fluffy or woolly appearance; this in the ordinary white Silk fowl is conjoined with a singular development of black pigment, which is deposited in the skin, the periosteum, and the inter-muscular cellular tissue; but the silky feature may occur in other breeds, and is occasionally found in very different species, as, for example, in the Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus).

The plastic character of the species is evidenced by the fact that within a few years it has been the desire of poultryfanciers to produce many of the varieties reduced to the size of Bantams. This has been most successfully accomplished with the Game, the Malay, the Cochin, and several others, specimens of which were exhibited at the show.

XXVIII. On the Habits of the Hoatzin (Opisthocomus cristatus). By J. J. QUELCH, B.Sc. (Lond.), C.M.Z.S., Curator of the British Guiana Museum.

THE observations on which the following notes are based were made in March, May, and October 1888, July 1889, and January 1890; and as they extended over but short periods at each time, no doubt several characteristics have remained unnoted which more continuous attention would have revealed.

The Hoatzin is known in British Guiana by the various names of" Anna,"" Hanna," " Canjé, or Stinking Pheasant," and "Governor Battenberg's Turkeys;" but in the districts where it is found the name of "Hanna" is the one most commonly used. These birds are plentifully distributed along the Berbice river above the town of New Amsterdam, along the Canjé creek, which opens into the Berbice immediately below the same town, and along the Abary creek, one of the higher branches of which leads into the Berbice river, and along which the birds have most likely spread, by this

channel, from the main stream. They are said to extend upward along the Berbice and the Canjé for a considerable distance; but on this point I have no personal knowledge, and reports which I have heard on the subject are conflicting. Where the birds are most abundantly found, the banks of the watercourses are lined by a thick, often impenetrable, and variable growth, which is washed and partially swamped by the water at high tide, and is fronted with a wide and deep deposit of soft mud at low water. Among the plants, a prickly and thorny, low-spreading, much-branched, leguminous shrub or tree, commonly known as the "Bundoorie pimpler" (Drepanocarpus lunatus), which stretches out even over the water, rising and falling with it, generally occurs in more or less dense masses, together with the "Courida " (Avicennia nitida), and a tall tree-like aroid, commonly known

as

"Mucco-mucco" (Montrichardia arborescens), which grows most luxuriantly in the muddy and swampy districts; and the young leaves and the fruits of these plants furnish almost the entire food of these birds. I have never seen them on the ground, nor feeding on the low weedy growths on its surface.

Almost invariably, where one or other of the three mentioned plants formed the nearly continuous growth by the water, the birds there shot contained in their crops only the leaves (or fruit) of that one plant; but where the plants were mingled, sometimes one and sometimes another had been eaten.

This dense lining-growth furnishes the home of the birds. In the early morning or the late afternoon they will be seen sitting in numbers on the plants, while towards the middle of the day, as the fierce heat of the sun increases, they betake themselves to shelter, either in the denser recesses of the growths, or among the individual trees of denser foliage, or among the tangled masses of creeping and climbing vines, which frequently spread over considerable areas of their food-plants along the very edge of the water. At this time one may pass, by boat, along the river without the faintest idea of the proximity of the birds, unless a very sharp watch

be kept up among the more leafy growths, or unless the report of a gun causes them to utter their curious cry. Late in the evening, after feeding, they will be seen settling themselves down in suitable places for the night.

The cry of the Hoatzin is easily heard when they are disturbed, and it is one of which it is not easy to give an exact idea. It recalls slightly the shrill screech of the Guineabird (Numida), but is made up of disjointed utterances, like the notes "heigh" or "sheigh" (ei as in "sleigh"), pronounced with a peculiarly sharp and shrill nasal intonation, so as to be quite hiss-like. While they are treading, the noise made is considerable, the cry being more continuous and shriek-like.

Whether from the fact of their occupying situations where they are but seldom disturbed or but little likely of being pursued, or from a natural weakness of wing, the birds are but seldom seen in flight; and when they take to the wing during disturbance, they do so but for very short distances a very exceptional flight being once observed of a length of about forty yards with the wind, across a creek, from a high growth on one bank to a lower level on the other. Usually they rise almost with a jump from the branch, seldom in a straight line, but with a marked convex curve to the point where they alight. The flight of the birds, in spite of their great expanse of wings in relation to the weight of the body, is thus extremely awkward, and the body presents a peculiarly humped appearance. During their longer courses the wings are rapidly and violently flapped.

When suddenly disturbed, as by the discharge of a gun amongst a group of them, they fly or spring away for distances of but a few feet, while those in the immediate vicinity show no other signs of alarm but the loud utterance of their shrill cry. While springing from place to place, when they are feeding or alarmed, they keep their wings fully expanded, and inclined almost vertically when they have first alighted, thus balancing themselves, the crest being then erect and the tail raised and expanded. It is at such times especially