Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/585

 CURATE CURCULIO 581 cation they exhibit the same traits and habits as ordinary poultry ; they are polygamous, many females being attached to a single male ; they are easily acclimated in Europe, and of course would be in the United States; they live in peace with other gallinaceous birds, and rarely utter any discordant cries. The flight of the curassows is heavy and ill sustained ; but they run with great rapidity, carrying the tail pendent. According to Sonnini, their cry may be represented by the syllables "po-hic;" in addition to this they make a dull humming sound, as does the turkey, variously modified by the remarkable sinuosities of the windpipe. The trachea in the cracidce differs from that of other gallinaceous birds in its remarkable circumvolutions. In the curassows proper they take place at the lower part of the neck, or in the thoracic cavity; in the pauxis they are directed on the muscles of the breast, imme- diately under the integuments ; but in none of them does the trachea form its convolutions in the interior of the breast bone, as in the swans. In the crested curassow the trachea is flatten- ed, chiefly membranous, with the rings entire and very distant from each other ; it describes a broad curve between the bones of the furca, goes back two inches over the muscles of the neck, and then makes a second circumvolution, from which it takes the usual form as far as the lower larynx, where it is suddenly dilated. In the pauxi, the trachea at the opening of the thorax ascends over the right great pectoral muscle at a distance from the crest of the breast bone, continues along this muscle, and forms a curve passing somewhat behind this bone ; it then proceeds over the left pectoral mus*cle, making a turn on the side of the breast bone, passing behind it above the first curve ; then it turns again to the right, and passes over the right clavicle into the cavity of the chest. The windpipe may be shortened or lengthened by muscular action. This confor- mation is doubtless connected with the loud and sonorous voices of these birds. The curas- sows are extensively distributed over America, being found in the Guianas, Brazil, Paraguay, Mexico, Central America, and probably some of the West India islands. CURATE (Lat. curare, to take care of, so called from having the care of souls), the low- est degree of clerical rank in the church of England. The curate is the substitute or as- sistant of the actual incumbent, but there are perpetual curacies, where there is neither rector nor vicar, but the tithes having been appropri- ated, the lay appropriate!* is obliged to appoint a curate at a stipend. In large parishes more than one curate is usually appointed. There are also curates in chapels of ease, and in the modern foundations known as district churches, which belong to ecclesiastical subdivisions with- in parishes, and are subordinate to the rector or vicar in some matters, though independent in others. By act 1 and 2 Victoria the lowest stipend required to be paid a curate is 80, the sum rising in proportion to the population of the cure to 150. CURCULIO, or Plnm Weevil, a small beetle of the family curculionidm, and genus rhynchce- nus (Fabr.) R. nenuphar (Herbst). The perfect insect is about one fifth of an inch long, dark brown, variegated with white, yellow, and black spots ; shaken from a tree it looks like a dried- bud, and when disturbed remains motionless, feigning death. It has a long curved snout, bent under the thorax when at rest, which is used to make the crescent-shaped cut in which the egg is deposited ; the jaws are at the end of the snout ; the thorax is uneven, and the wing cases are ridged and humped, covering two transparent wings by which the insect flies from tree to tree ; behind the humps is a yel- lowish white spot ; each thigh has two small teeth on the under side. These beetles ap- pear between the first of April and the mid- dle of June, according to the forwardness of vegetation. When the plums are about the size of peas, the female begins to sting the fruit, making an incision in which she deposits a single egg; she goes from plum to plum, placing an egg in each until her store is ex- CFBCULIOS. 1. "White Pine. 2, 3. Plum. hausted, hardly a fruit escaping when these insects are abundant. The grubs, resembling whitish, footless maggots, with a rounded, dis- tinct, light brown head, are hatched by the heat of the sun, and immediately burrow ob- liquely to the stone; the fruit, weakened by the gnawing of the grub, becomes gummy, and falls to the ground before it is ripe; by this time the grub has attained its full size, quits the fruit, and enters the ground between the middle of June and the middle of August in New England ; it there becomes a pupa, and comes forth a perfect insect in about three weeks. Several broods may be hatched in a season, the latest remaining as pupae in the ground all winter ; some good authorities be- lieve that the curculio passes the winter above ground in the perfect state, and therefore that any operations in the soil at this .season can be of no advantage in guarding against its rav- ages. Not only plums, but nectarines, apricots, peaches, cherries, apples, pears, and quinces, are attacked by the curculio. The grubs are sometimes found in excrescences on plum trees, in which the beetle, finding in them an acid resembling that of the fruit, has deposited the eggs, and hence has often been wrongfully ac-