﻿686 PINTADO. 



upper mandible, at the bafe, hangs a blueifh red wattle : the 

 upper part of the neck is fparingly befet with hairy feathers, and 

 the fkin which appears between is of blueifh afh-colour : the 

 lower part of the neck is feathered, and inclines more to violet; 

 the reft of the plumage is black, marked with round fpots of 

 white of different fizes, which are croffed in the intermediate 

 fpaces with grey, the wings and tail not excepted : the legs 

 are greyifh brown. 

 Female. The female has the wattles rather lefs in fize, and red, which 



in the male are inclined to blue. 

 Place and The native place of this bird is, without doubt, Africa', and 



is the Meleagris * of old authors. It is fuppofed originally to have 

 come from Nubia f, and was efteemed in the Roman banquets. 

 Met with wild in flocks of two or three hundred, by various 

 travellers. Bampier found them in numbers in the ifland of 

 Mayo % i and Forfter fpeaks of them as plenty at St. Jago § ; but 

 they have been tranfported into the Weft Indies || and America **, 

 and are now in a wild ftate in thofe places, as well as domefti- 

 cated. 



This fpecies is very common alfo in Europe, and the flefh 

 of the young birds much efteemed. The female lays many eggs 

 in a feafon ft, which by fome are fet under Hens, and require 



* Pallas Spic. iv. p. 15. — Hift. des oif, ii. p. 172. note (o). 



f Hajfelquift. — From whence he fays alfo Apes, Parrots, &c. are brought to 

 Cairo, and other parts of Africa. 



I Damp. Voy.\\u p' 1. p. 23. § Forft. Voy. p. 39. || Sloan. ** Kalm. 



ff As far as an hundred to sn hundred and fifty, at St. Domingo, — Hift. des 

 oif. vol. ii. p. 185. 



? care 



