GUINEA FOWLS. 263 



breeds freely in confinement, but appears to require a 

 tropical climate. 



GUINEA-FOWL. This bird, called also the Gallina and 

 Pintado, mates in pairs, and an equal number of males and 

 females must therefore be provided to prevent disappoint- 

 ment. A single male should not in any case have more 

 than two hens. There appear to be ten or twelve wild 

 varieties, but only one has been domesticated hi this 

 country. 



To commence breeding Guinea-fowls, it is needful to 

 procure some eggs and set them under a common hen ; for 

 if old birds be purchased they will wander off for miles as 

 soon as they are set at liberty, and never return. If hatched 

 in the poultry-yard, however, and regularly fed, they will 

 remain ; but must always have one meal regularly at night, 

 or they will scarcely ever roost at home. Nothing, how- 

 ever, will persuade them to sleep in the fowl-house, unless 

 it is large and lofty, and they usually roost in the lower 

 branches of a tree. 



The hen lays pretty freely from May or June to about 

 August, often 90 or 100 eggs in a season. She is a very 

 shy bird, and if eggs are taken from her nest with her 

 knowledge, will forsake it altogether, and seek another, 

 which she conceals with the most sedulous care. It is best 

 to give the earliest eggs to a common hen, as the Guinea- 

 fowl herself frequently sits too late to rear a brood. If 

 " broody " in due season, however, she rarely fails to hatch 

 nearly all. Incubation is from twenty-six to twenty-nine 

 or thirty days. 



The chicks require food almost immediately within, at 

 most, ten hours after hatching and should be fed and cared 

 foi in the same manner as young turkeys. It should be 

 observed, however, that they require while very young 



