THE GUINEA-FOWL 81 



guinea-fowl is rare in poultry-yards, and by reason 

 of its music escapes the spit. 



* ' Second, its love of fighting. The parchment hel- 

 met standing up on top of the head betrays at the 

 first glance the quarrelsome mania of the bird. The 

 guinea-fowl is the bully of the poultry-yard ; it dom- 

 ineers over the others and for a mere nothing will 

 pick a quarrel. Hens and chickens are tormented 

 for the possession of a grain of oats ; the cock must 

 on all occasions have a trial of skill with the beak to 

 make his and his family's rights respected; the tur- 

 key-gobbler himself, the burly gobbler, must reckon 

 with it. The guinea-cock, quick at attack, delivers 

 ten assaults and twenty blows of the beak before his 

 i>ig adversary can put himself on the defensive. 

 When at last the gobbler parries and thrusts, the tur- 

 bulent aggressor makes use of tactics that he seems 

 to have learned from his compatriot, the Arab. He 

 turns his back on the enemy, flees in haste, then 

 abruptly returns to the charge and hurls himself 

 suddenly on the gobbler at a moment when the latter 

 is off his guard. The beak having dealt its blow, 

 the flight recommences. Nearly always the gobbler 

 is forced to capitulate. I leave you to imagine what 

 sort of harmony must prevail in a poultry-yard har- 

 boring such disturbers of the peace. 



1 1 Third, its wanderlust. The narrow limits of the 

 poultry-yard are irksome to guinea-fowls. They are 

 glad enough to be on hand at feeding time, but, their 

 crops once full, they must have a long walk across 



