ornithology, the curassou, a genus of birds, belonging to the order of gallinæ. The base of the beak of each mandible is covered with wax; and the feathers of the head are curled. There are five species, viz. 1. The aleator, or Indian hen of Sloane, is about the size of a small turkey. It is black, with a white belly. A yellow wax covers about one half of each mandible; the tongue is entire; the temples are bare and black; the tail is rounded, and consists of 14 prime feathers; the legs are strong, and of a dusky brown colour. They are frequent at Guiana; and are called powese by the natives from their cry, which is somewhat similar; are pretty numerous in the woods, and make no small part of the food of the planters, being supplied therewith by the Indian hunters; and their flesh is reckoned delicate, much like that of a turkey. They are easily brought up tame, and are frequently found in the Dutch settlements of Berbice, Essequibo, and Demerary. They are called at Brazil by the name of curassou. It is found in the warm parts of America. 2. The rubra, or Peruvian hen, is red, with a bluish head: it is a native of Peru. These birds are natives of Mexico Plate CLI. and Peru. They feed on fruits, and perch of nights on trees: the flesh is white; and esteemed very good food. They are frequently kept tame in our menageries in England, and readily mix with other poultry, feeding on bread and grain; but this climate is not near warm enough for their nature, they not being able to bear the dampness of the grass of our meadows, which renders them subject to have their toes rot off. They will often live in this state some time; and in one instance which Mr Latham saw, the whole of one foot was gone, and but part of one toe left on the other, before the creature died. 3. The mitu, or Brazilian pheasant, is black, with a dusky belly, and red wax: it is a native of Guinea and Brazil. 4. The globicera, has a yellow protuberance between the nostrils, and is of a bluish-black colour: it is likewise a native of Brazil. 5. The paraxi, or Mexican pheasant of Brissotius, is of a bluish colour, with blue wax, and the tip of the tail and belly white: it is a native of Mexico.

Cray-fish, or Craw-Fish. See Cancer.

The flesh of cray-fish is cooling, moistening, and adapted to nourish such as labour under atrophies. There are various methods of preparing these animals; they may be either boiled or fried, and then taken out of their shells, and made up in variety of dishes: but no parts of them are eatable except their claws and tails. Preparations and broths of cray-fish are celebrated not only for a palatable aliment, but also for answering some medicinal intentions, as being of a moistening quality, and strengthening up and correcting acrimony. The broth is prepared of four or five cray-fish, which having their heads cut off, and their intestines extracted, are to be bruised and boiled in the broth of flesh or poultry, until they become sufficiently red; after which the liquor is to be strained off and seasoned, as the case may require. This broth may be rendered still more medicinal by the addition of herbs, snails, or other substances; according to the intention of the physician. Their flesh is accounted best in the summer months.

The delicate flavour of these fish depends in a great measure on their food. When they have well-tasted food, their flesh preserves the relish of it; but when they feed on other things, they are often rendered of no value, by the flavour communicated to their flesh by them. There are great quantities of these fish in the river Obra, on the borders of Silea; but the people find them scarce eatable, because of a bitter aromatic flavour, very disagreeable in food. It has been since observed, that the *calamus aromaticus* grows in vast abundance on the banks of that river, and that these creatures feed very greedily upon its roots. These have a very remarkable bitterness mixed with their aromatic flavour, while fresh, which goes off very much in the drying; and on comparing the taste of these roots with that of the cray fish, there remains no doubt of the one being owing to the other.

They abound in the river Don in Muscovy, where they are laid in heaps to putrefy; after which the stones called *crab's eyes* are picked out. These animals are very greedy of flesh, and flock in great numbers about carcasses thrown into the water where they are, and never leave it while any remains. They also feed on dead frogs when they come into their way. In Switzerland there are some cray-fish which are red while they are alive, and others bluish. Some kinds of them also will never become red, even by boiling, but continue blackish.

The cray fish discharges itself of its stomach, and, as M. Geoffroy thinks, of its intestines too. These, as they putrefy and dissolve, serve for food to the animal; during the time of the reformation, the old stomach seems to be the first food the new one digests. It is only at this time that the stones are found called *crab's eyes*; they begin to be formed when the old stomach is destroyed, and are afterwards wrapped up in the new one, where they decrease by degrees till they entirely disappear.