Ill] OF POULTRY 301 



are hardly ever seen at Rome save tame and in a 

 cage. They resemble in shape not ^ these barn-door 

 fowls of ours, but the African birds (guinea-fowls). 



17 When perfect in appearance and shape they often 

 take a place at public displays with parrots, white 

 blackbirds, and other strange creatures of that kind. 

 They lay eggs and bring off chickens in the woods, 

 rarely in a farmyard. It is said that the island of 

 Gallinaria gets its name from these hens {gallinae) 

 — an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea situated close to 

 Italy, and opposite the Ligurian mountains, Inti- 

 milium and Album Ingaunum.^ Others hold that 

 the name comes from our barn-door fowls which 

 were brought there originally by sailors and became 



18 wild and multiplied. The African fowls (guinea 

 fowls) are big, speckled, hump-backed, and are called 



comme le fait la poule sauvage des forets de Vlnde. Elle vivait 

 dans les hois comme cette demikre. De plus, la couleur du coq 

 et de la poule sauvages que Varron compare h celle de la pintade, 

 est aussi celle de la poule et du coq sauvages de Vlnde. Or on 

 sait que les animaux et les oiseaux domcstiques, abandonn^s a 

 la vie sauvage, reprennent, au bout de quelques generations, la 

 couleur de Vespbce primitive. 



Naturalists are agreed, I believe, that at least a large 

 number, if not all, of the European species spring from the 

 Indian jungle-fowl. 



* Non similes. Columella (viii, 2, 2) contradicts this rustica 

 quae non dissim His villalicae per aucupem decipitu r. Kei 1 wo u 1 d 

 reconcile the two statements by supposing that Varro is speak- 

 ing only of those seen in Rome at shows. 



' Album Ingaunum. Pomponius Mela (c. 27) has Albi- 

 gaunum. The town is now called Albenga; (ntimilium, 

 Vintimiglia ; and Gallinaria, Isola d'Albenga. 



