THE GUINEA-FOWL. Ill 



common practice to place the eggs under a 

 common fowl, the risk of the loss of the brood 

 being thus avoided. The natural period of 

 incubation is from twenty-eight to twenty-nine 

 days. The female guinea-fowl commences lay- 

 ing in May, and continues to lay during the 

 summer, and it is not until the latter part of 

 the summer that, if left to her instinct, she 

 begins to sit upon her eggs ; these are smaller 

 than those of the ordinaiy barn-door fowl, and 

 are remarkable for the hardness of the shell, 

 ■which is of a pale yellowish red, finely dotted 

 ■with a darker tint. Their flavour is reckoned 

 very superior. 



The guinea-fowl may be said to succeed the 

 pheasant in the London market, coming in after 

 the season of the latter is over, and it must be 

 acknowledged that the flesh of the young bird 

 is very deUcate, juicy, and well-flavoured — this 

 remark, however, only applies to the young, for 

 old birds, even those of the second year, are 

 dry, tough, and tasteless, nor will the larding 

 of the poulterer improve them. 



The guinea-fowl is too well known to need a 

 detailed description, nor is it subject to much 

 variation of plumage. Individuals with the 

 breast or under parts more or less extensively 



