THE GUINEA-FOWL.

The guinea-fowl, or pintado, (Numida meleagris,) is the true meleagris of the ancients,* a term generically applied by Belon, Aldrovandus, and Gesner, to the turkey, and now retained, although the error is acknowledged, in order to prevent confusion.

The common guinea-fowl is a native of Africa, where it appears to be extensively spread, frequenting the banks of rivers, and marshes, and open-humed localities, where various berries, seeds, insects, and slugs are in abundance. In its habits it is decidedly gregarious, and associates in large flocks, which wander abroad during the day in search of food, and collect together on the approach of evening, in order to roost upon some tall tree, or clump of trees, where they crowd in close array on the branches. It is not without difficulty that these birds can be forced to take to flight, and then it is only for a short distance. They trust principally to their rapid mode of running, and to their dexterity in threading the mazes of brushwood and dense herbage, for security. They scour the woodland glades

* See Ovid Metam. lib. viii. fab. 4,

and the open lands, bordering forests, or wild thickets, with great celerity, and quickly escape pursuit. In disposition they are shy, wary, and alert.

The guinea-fowl has been alluded to by various travellers in Africa, as Adamson, Dampier, Le Vaillant, and others; but as upwards of six distinct species are now known, (some of very great beauty,) and as they give no specific indications, we cannot positively say to which species they allude. However, it cannot be doubted that, in general manners and disposition, they all closely agree.

We have incontestable proof that the ancient Greeks and Romans were well acquainted with the guinea-fowl (or meleagris). It is noticed. by Aristotle, among the former, and by Pliny, Varro, and Columella, among the latter. The wonder is that Belon, a scholar, should ever have considered the turkey as the bird in question. ! But though, as we have said, this bird was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, it does not appear to have spread rapidly, or been thoroughly naturalized, otherwise Belon's mistake would be unpardonable. In fact, we lose all trace of it in the middle ages, and strange to say, it appears to have come to us, not from

Africa, (and here we suspect the confusion. arises,) but from the western world, where it had been introduced with human bondsmen torn from their native soil to supply the place of the miserably slaughtered population of the western world, and condemned to labour for the conquering white man, for him whose only passion, under the veil of popish religion, was "the accursed thirst for gold,' " "auri sacra fames."

We learn that about the year 1508, numbers of these birds were brought into America with the cargoes of negro slaves::- "The Spaniards neither at that time nor ever since, have attempted to tame them, or render them domestic, useful birds, but let them go loose and wild in the savannahs, where they have increased in such prodigious numbers, that they may well appear native; and are seen in vast flocks together. They are called Maroon Pentates by the Spaniards and French," (Observ. sur les Cout. de l'Asie, p. 190.) At the present day, in Jamaica, but more especially Hayti, and other islands adjacent, the guinea-fowl, or pintado, is regarded as a wild bird and shot like other game. With respect to the British islands we are unable to say at what period it was introduced. We do not

find its name occurring in the list of birds in the famous feast of archbishop Neville in the reign of Edward Iv.; it does not appear on the duke of Northumberland's household-book, 1512, nor is it alluded to in the householdbook of Henry VIII., yet in these lists of flesh and fowl for the table, the peion, or peacock, is distinctly and conspicuously noted.

It

would appear, then, not to have been introduced until after the turkey ;-(we must pardon Belon,)-probably not until the end of the seventeenth, or beginning of the eighteenth century. Even at present, in our country, it is far less generally kept than the turkey. In the colder latitudes of Europe, it is yet scarcely known. Linnæus does not mention it in his "Fauna Suecica," and we believe that neither Denmark, Norway, nor Northern Russia possesses it; at all events it is scarce. In India, the guinea-fowl is to be seen only in a domestic state, and is bred almost exclusively by European gentlemen. It thrives as well as in its native country. (See Proc. Zool. Soc., 1832, p. 152.)

Such is the meagre outline of facts which we have been able to collect respecting the European naturalization of the guinea-fowl.

The guinea-fowl retains in a state of domestication no small share of its original wildness, and restless wandering habits, and hence when closely confined it becomes dull and pining, and little disposed to breed; it loves a wide range of thickets, fields, and pasture grounds, and the run of open farm-yards, where it searches for insects, seeds, and green herbage, the flock traversing the hedge-rows and brakes, in the same manner as do turkeys. Like the turkey, too, the hen guinea-fowl conceals her nest from the male; for though at other times he is affectionate and solicitous, yet he evinces a great dislike to incubation, and on discovering the eggs never fails to destroy them. The hen, consequently, makes choice of the most secluded spot, so much so, that it is not without difficulty her retreat is discovered; and instances have come under our own notice in which a hen guinea-fowl has appeared in the farm-yard with a young brood attending upon her, after she had been given up as lost, or accidentally killed. In these instances, the eggs and young are subject to the attacks of foxes, polecats, weasels, and birds of prey; and as the guinea-fowl seldom shows much disposition to incubate if kept under restraint, it is a