228 PHASIANID^: NUMIDA 



Sliarpe, ed. Layards, B. 8. Afr. pp. 581, 854 (1884) [in part] ; 

 Grant, Cat. B. M. xxii, p. 376 (1893) ; id. Ibis, 1894, p. 536, fig. 2 ; 

 Distant, ibid. p. 569 : Kendall, Ibis, 1896, p. 175 ; Shelley, B. Afr.i, 

 p. 183 (1896) ; Grant, Game Birds, ii, p. 90 (1897) ; Neumann, Orn. 

 Monatsb. 1898, p. 19 ; Woodward Bros., Natal B. p. 165 (1899) ; 

 Marshall, Ibis, 1900, p. 262 ; Eeichenow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 441, fig. 3 

 on p. 436 (1901) ; Gates, Cat. B. Eggs, i, p. 63, pi. vii, fig. 2 (1901). 



Numida mitrata (nee Pall.} Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 266 (1867). 



Numida cornuta, Finsch <& Hartl. Vog.' Oat- Afr. p. 569 (1870) ; 

 BucUey, Ibis, 1874, p. 386 ; Holub fr Pelzeln, Orn. Siid-Afr. p. 183 

 (1882). 



Numida transvaalensis, Neumann, Orn. Monatsb. 1899, p. 26. 



Further information regarding this bird may be found in the following 

 works : 



Burchell, Travels, i, p. 426 (1822) ; Drummond, Large Game of South 

 and South-east Africa, p. 415 (1875) ; Bryden, Kloof and Karoo, 

 p. 314 (1889) ; id. Gun and Camera, p. 467 (1893) ; id. Nature and 

 Sport, p. 67 (1897) ; Nicolls and Eglington, Sportsman S. A. p. 108, 

 pi. xi, fig. 58 (1892) ; Kirby, Haunts of Wild Game, p. 561 (1896). 



" Tarantal " of Dutch ; " Impangele " of Amaxosa (Stanford) and Zulus 

 (Woodward) ; " Dicawka" of Bechuanas (Nicolls and Eglington). 



Description. Adult. Bony helmet long, curved backwards, 

 flattened laterally and compressed ; plumage black throughout, with 

 rounded white spots, smallest on the neck, largest on the abdomen ; 

 the spots on the back are separated from one another by a network 

 of dotted white lines ; on the secondaries the spots are elongated to 

 form short bars ; head and neck naked, save for a few black bristles 

 below the eye, round the ear and on the nape. 



Iris brown ; bill yellowish-horn ; top of head, base of the helmet 

 and tip of the gape-wattles red ; rest of the head and neck, and 

 base of the gape-wattles bluish-black ; legs and feet dark horn to 

 black. 



Length (of a male in the flesh) 23'5; wing 11-0; tail 6-4 ; culmen 

 1-7 ; tarsus 2-9. Weight of male about 3f Ibs. 



The helmet varies considerably in length, in one case measuring 

 3*25, in another only 2-0 along the upper margin. 



The sexes are alike. 



Distribution. This Guinea-fowl i8 found all over the eastern half 

 of Ca'pe Colony and Natal, whence it extends northwards to the 

 Zambesi ; here it merges into the East African N. mitrata, while to 

 the west in German South-west Africa it meets the closely- allied 

 N. papillosa. 



The following are localities : Cape Colony Middelburg and 

 Graaf Beinet (S. A. Mus.), Sunday River in Uitenhage (Sparrman 



