308 Birds. 



THE GUINEA FOWL, OR PINTADO. 



(Numida Meleagris.) 



THIS bird, which is also called the Pearled Hen, was 

 originally brought from Africa, where the breed is com- 

 mon, and seems to have been well known to the Romans, 

 who used to esteem the flesh of this fowl as a delicacy, 

 and admit it at their banquets. It went then by the 

 name of Numidian Hen, or Meleagris, because it was 

 fabled that the sisters of Meleager, who unceasingly 

 deplored his death, were metamorphosed into Guinea 

 Hens by Diana. In fact, although they are now domes- 

 ticated with us, they still retain a great deal of their 

 original freedom, and have a stupid look. Their noise 

 is very disagreeable : it is a creaking note, which, in- 

 cessantly repeated, grates upon the ear, and becomes 

 very teasing and unpleasant. They belong to the class 

 of birds called pulveratores ; as they scrape the ground 

 and roll themselves in the dust like common hens, in 

 order to get rid of small insects which lodge in their 

 feathers. 



The Pintado is somewhat larger than the common hen ; 

 the head is bare of feathers, and covered with a naked 

 skin of a bluish colour ; on the top is a callous protuber- 

 ance of a conical form. At the base of the bill on each 

 side hangs a loose wattle, red in the female and bluish in 

 the male. The general colour of the plumage is a dark 

 bluish grey, sprinkled with round white spots of different 

 sizes, resembling pearls, from which circumstance the 



