378 GUINEA FOWLS. 



but only an instance of habits modified by a change of climate, 

 similar to the cessation of torpidity, and to the brown, instead 

 of white, winter dress in animals brought from the arctic re- 

 gions to tempe'rate climates. Even in Great Britain, there 

 are not enough Guinea Fowls hatched by their actual parents, 

 to keep the breed from becoming extinct in a few years. It 

 is certain that the sands of tropical Africa are more than hot 

 enough to hatch them, and that the young birds are unusually 

 vivacious and independent, if they have but a supply of proper 

 food, which they would find in the myriads of insects engen- 

 dered there. They are also found wild on the Island of As- 

 cension, but it is doubtful whether any accurate account of 

 their habits or mode of increase there is yet extant. 



The normal plumage of the Guinea Fowl is singularly 

 beautiful, being spangled over with an infinity of white spots 

 on a black ground, shaded with gray and brown. The spots 

 vary from the size of a pea to extreme minuteness. Rarely 

 the black and white change places, causing the bird to appear 

 as if covered with a net-work of lace. 



A white variety is not uncommon, and is asserted by a 

 Yorkshire correspondent of the "Gardener's Chronicle," to be 

 equally hardy and profitable with the usual kind ; but the pe- 

 culiar beauty of the original plumage is, surely, ill exchanged 

 for a dress of not the purest white. It is doubtful for how 

 long either this or the former one would remain permanent; 

 probably but for few generations. Pied birds, blotched with 

 patches of white, are frequent, but are not comparable, in point 

 of beauty, with those of the original wild colour. 



