248 



GUINEA FOWL. 



WE purposely pass over the breeding and rearing 

 of Guinea Fowl, with only a very few observations, 

 our' experience being, that it is a bird which retains 

 too much of its original wild nature to be bred and 

 kept with advantage. It is easily made to forsake the 

 nest, which the Hen secretes with great care and 

 adroitness, generally in the midst of standing corn, so 

 that, in most cases, it falls a sacrifice to the reaper's 

 operations, or is destroyed when they are upon the field. 

 We once reared, at the latter end of the month of 

 September, a large flock of seventeen, under a Common 

 Hen, from eggs got in such circumstances, the proper 

 parent, being scared, having deserted them ; and we 

 were most successful in bringing the whole brood to 

 nearly the size of their foster mother, when a dis- 

 temper, not understood, and which it baffled all our 

 attempts to arrest, carried them off one by one, till 

 at length the Hen, tired out, forsook the last three or 

 four remaining birds, the strongest of the brood ; but, 

 to our grief and disappointment, even these also became 

 victims to the same fatal malady. Before the birds 

 began to droop, they were very strong and promising ; 

 but the lateness of the season must have been very 

 trying j;o them, and most probably the cause of the 

 illness, which proved so destructive. 



