80 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



dred and more annually. They are a little smaller 

 than the hen 's, with remarkably thick shells of a yel- 

 lowish or dull reddish color. Its flesh is superior, 

 veritable game, nearly equal to that of the pheasant 

 and partridge ; and yet the guinea-fowl is rare almost 

 everywhere. Three great faults are the reason: its 

 cry, its quarrelsome disposition, and its wandering 

 habits. 



4 * First, its cry. He who has not had, for hours 

 and hours, his ear tortured by the satanic music of 

 the bird is ignorant of one of the most irritating of 

 minor torments. The rasping of a file upon the teeth 

 of a saw in process of sharpening, the discordant 

 screech of a strangling cat, the final roulade of a 

 braying donkey, are trifles in comparison. And this 

 charivari goes on from morning to night with a re- 

 enforcement of the orchestra when the weather is 

 about to change or something unexpected happens 

 to worry the performers. If one is not blessed with 

 a special ear, if the head is not void of all preoccupa- 

 tion, one simply cannot stand this deafening racket. 

 They say the guinea-hens have inherited the wail- 

 ings of Meleager's sisters; but I like to think that 

 the poor girls put a little more reserve into the heart- 

 breaking expression of their grief. In short, never 

 tell Uncle Paul to have guinea-hens under his win- 

 dow; he would flee to the farthest depths of the 

 forest, never to return. There are others, and they 

 are numerous, whose nerves are irritated just as 

 much by the insufferable bird; that is why the 



