4 
THE BLACK GUINEA-FOWLS. 85 
Tarsus in male armed with a short blunt spur, 
Only one species is known. 
I. THE BLACK GUINEA-FOWL. PHASIDUS NIGER, 
Phasidus niger, Cassin, Proc. Acad. Philad. 1856, p. 322 ; id. J. 
Ac. Philad. (2) p. 7, pl. 3 (1858) ; Elliot, Monogr. Phasian. 
il, pl. 36 (187 2) 5 ; Rochebr. Act. Soc. Linn. Bord. xxxviii. 
p. 356, pl. xxii. (1884) ; Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. 
xxl. Dp. 373 (1893). 
Adult Male—A band of feathers along the middle of the 
head, black ; general colour and rest of plumage blackish- 
brown, finely mottled with dark brown. Naked skin of head 
and neck Naples-yellow, shading into orange-yellow on the 
throat and lower parts of the neck. Total length, 16°5 inches; 
maieeons), tall 5:5; tarsus, 2°7. 
Adult Female.—Similar to the male, but without spurs. 
Range——West Africa, from Cape Lopez to Loango. 
Habits——The Black Guinea-Fowl is one of the rarest of the 
Game-Birds. Even in the British Museum collection there 
are only two examples of it, and neither of these are per 
fect specimens, the middle tail-feathers in both being absent. 
Mr. Du Chaillu, the original discoverer of this remarkable bird, 
gives the following brief account :—‘“‘ One day I went out hunt- 
ing by myself, and, to my great joy, shot another new bird, a 
black wild fowl, one of the most singular birds I have seen in 
Africa. . . . The head, where it is bare, is in the female 
of a pink hue, and in the male of a bright scarlet. . . 
When I saw this bird for the first time in the woods I pote t 
I saw before me a domestic chicken. The natives have noticed 
the resemblance, too, as their name for it shows, coda iga, 
* Cassin gives the length of the tail as 6’o inches. 
+ It will be noted that the colours of the naked skin here given do not 
agree with those given in the description above. Iam unable ‘to say which 
is correct. 
