GAME BIRDS 13 



and covert, the species holds its own amazingly well. 

 I did not believe that such enormous numbers could 

 exist in any one area as I saw in 1899 on the middle 

 reaches of the Kwando. The country on the west bank 

 was uninhabited, and there were stretches of swampy 

 grass land extending from a fringe of thick forest to the 

 river's brink. In the late evenings these places used 

 to be one mass of guinea-fowl on their way down to 

 drink, and one found it difficult to comprehend whence 

 came the fqoci to supply such countless numbers. 



In German ckmth-West Africa, northwards to the 

 Cunene River, the place of the above species is taken 

 by a nearly allied one, distinguished by the crown or 

 helmet being bright red instead of bluish black. 



In Portuguese territory north of the Zambezi, and 

 through all east Africa, the species met with has a small 

 conical and pale-coloured helmet. Its habits are as 

 those of the others ; but in Portuguese Nyasaland 

 I noticed a custom prevalent amongst the flocks which 

 is foreign, in my experience, to the crowned guinea-fowl. 

 After the conclusion of the morning foraging expedition, 

 instead of going away to spend the heat of the day 

 in the long grass or low scrub, they would fly up into 

 the branches of large trees growing in swamps or sur- 

 rounded by dense undergrowth or cane-brake, and remain 

 there until the late afternoon, when they would come 

 down to feed. 



There are some four other species of crowned guinea- 

 fowls known in Africa, and that which I saw on the 

 upper Nile seemed not at all to differ in habits from its 

 cousins in the Transvaal. 



THE CRESTED GUINEA-FOWL. This is a very handsome 

 bird, its head covered on the top with a crest of curly 

 black feathers. The rest of the plumage is black, mottled 



