I03 ALLEN'S NATURALISTS LIBRARY. 



Tail long, wedge-shaped, composed of sixteen feathers, the 

 middle pair nmch lengtheiied and pointed. 



First primary flight-feather shorter than the second, which is 

 about equal to the ninth ; sixth slightly longest. 



Tarsus in male with four or five knobs. 



Only one species is known. 



I. THE VULTURINE GUINEA-FOWL. ACRYLLTUM VULTURINUM. 



Numida vulturina, Hardw. P. Z. S. 1834, p. 52 ; Gould, Icon. 



Av. pi. 8 (1837); Elliot, Monogr. Phasian. ii. pi. 38 



(1872). 

 Acryllhim vultiirinum, Gray ; Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. 



xxii. p. 385 (1893). 



Adult Male. — The band of velvety feathers on nape reddish- 

 brown ; long hackles of neck, mantle, and chest with white 

 middles, edged with black and margined with cobalt-blue ; 

 breast and belly cobalt-blue, black down the middle j sides 

 and flanks washed with purple ; rest of plumage mostly black, 

 minutely dotted and spotted with white. Naked parts of head 

 and neck cobalt-blue. Total length, 30 inches; wing, 12-2; 

 tail, 1 1 "3; tarsus, 4-1 ; middle toe (with claw), 3. 



Adult Female. — Differs only in having no knob-like spurs on 

 the tarsi, and in being rather smaller than the male. 



Range. — East Africa, extending from the Pangani River 

 northwards to Somali-land and westwards to Kilimanjaro. 



Although this remarkably handsome species was first 

 discovered in 1834, practically nothing is known regarding its 

 habits. Mr. H. C. V. Hunter, who met with it along the Useri 

 River, tells us that it frequents dry red soil covered with thorny 

 bushes; he also found it particularly plentiful on the Tana 

 River, where, with the exception of the curly crested form 

 [Guttera pucherani), it was the only Guinea-Fowl observed. 



Eggg, — An egg laid in the Gardens of the Zoological Society 



