280 The Fowl-like Birds 



The Guinea-Fowls (subfamily Numtdina), typified by the well-known 

 domestic bird, are all natives of Africa and take their name from the country 

 whence they were first introduced into Europe. As at present accepted, the 

 group includes five gfe'nera and some twenty-three species, although two West 

 African species, the Black Guinea-Fowl (Phasidus niger) and the Turkey Guinea- 

 Fowl (Agelastes meleagrides), are anomalous in a number of particulars, and 

 have sometimes been separated as a distinct subfamily. 



The true Guinea-Fowls (Numida), of which fourteen species are well known, 

 are characterized by having the upper part of the head bare and elevated in the 

 center into a bony crest or helmet. The common domestic species (N. melea- 

 gris] is found wild in West Africa from Senegambia to the Niger, and also in 

 the Cape Verde Islands, and in some of the West Indies, where it was, of course, 

 introduced. It is too well known to require description, as it has been changed 

 very little by domestication. The Guinea-Fowls are gregarious, often gathering 

 in large flocks, but they are extremely wild and difficult of approach. They 

 escape by running with great swiftness, although they fly strongly when flushed. 

 The species are all rather closely allied, the illustration being of Pallas's Hel- 

 meted Guinea-Fowl (TV. mitrata) of East Africa and Madagascar. 



The Crested Guinea-Fowls (Guttera) have a thick tuft of feathers on the top 

 of the head instead of the bony helmet, but otherwise differ but little from the 

 true Guinea-Fowls. One of the best of the six known species now recognized is 

 G. cristata, found in West Africa from Sierra Leone to the Gold Coast. The 

 plumage is black, spotted with pale blue, and the crest black, while some four or 

 five of the outer secondaries are pure white, thus producing a white band when 

 the wing is closed. There is also a black collar. 



The Vulturine Guinea-Fowl (Acryllium vulturinum] is by far the handsomest 

 of the group. It is native from Somaliland to Kilimanjaro, and has the head 

 and upper part of the neck naked and covered with cobalt-blue skin, with the 

 exception of a patch of short chestnut feathers on the nape. The lower part of 

 the neck and the upper portion of the back and breast are covered with long, 

 narrow feathers, each having a white shaft-stripe with cobalt-blue margins. The 

 mantle is black, minutely dotted with white, while the flanks are purple spotted 

 with white, and the middle of the breast a beautiful cobalt-blue. X he tail, which 

 has the middle feathers long, narrow, and pointed, is similarly colored. 



The Black Guinea-Fowl and the Turkey Guinea-Fowl, as above stated, are 

 peculiar in having spurs, thus approaching the Jungle-Fowls. They are hand- 

 some birds, but extremely rare, and practically nothing is known of their habits. 



The Grouse, Partridges, and Quails (subfamily TelraonincE). This im- 

 portant and well-known group, embracing as it does by far the greater 

 number of valuable non-aquatic game birds, merits a very full and careful 

 presentation. Although perhaps most abundantly represented in the North- 

 ern Hemisphere, they are nearly world-wide in distribution, and are especially 

 well represented in North America. The group comprises about one hundred 

 and twenty-five species, disposed in some twenty-three genera, which are dis- 

 .tinguished from the Pheasants, among other characters, by the absence of spurs 



