MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD 



I must not forget the group of Guinea- 

 fowl, who fraternize charmingly, and threaten 

 to become one family. These birds, unlike 

 all other feathered animals, show no marked 

 difference of appearance between the sexes; 

 so slight is this indeed, that even the natural- 

 ists have blundered into errors, and left us in 

 the dark.* Even a fighting propensity does 

 not distinguish the cock, I observe; for the 

 female bird is an arrant termagant, and has 

 undertaken, in my own flock, a fierce battle 

 with a tom-turkey, in which, though worsted, 

 and eventually killed, she showed a fine chival- 

 rous pluck. They are not, however, quarrel- 

 some among themselves ; although flocking to- 

 gether in communities, the male birds are 

 strictly faithful to their mates, and manifest 

 none of the sultanic propensities which so de- 

 plorably mislead the other domestic fowls. 



Notwithstanding their harsh cry, to which 

 the Greeks gave a special descriptive name,^ 

 I like the Guinea-fowl; they are excellent lay- 

 ers, enormous devourers of insects— a little 

 over-fond, it is true, of young cauliflowers, 

 and grapes,— yet a stanch, lively, self-pos- 

 sessed bird ; and notwithstanding the sneers of 



^Buffon: De la Pintade. 

 2 KayK&l^eiv. 



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