186 POULTRY BREEDING 
White sports have been bred together until a white 
variety is known and a good many farms carry guinea 
fowls which are partly white. In color the guinea is a 
grayish blue or rather purple, the feathers being studded 
with round white dots arranged in symmetrical fashion. 
These birds are not so large as they seem, rarely weighing 
more than 3% pounds each, the cock being slightly 
heavier than the hen. Cock and hen are identical in color, 
the cock being slightly coarser about the head. The cock 
has a clattering cry, which the hens often use, but the hen 
alone uses the characteristic “buckwheat,” “buckwheat” 
which fancy translates her cry to be, and this only when 
comfortable and ccntented. 
The guinea is a wanderer and can not be kept with 
success in confinement. It naturally sleeps on some high 
perch outdoors and is entirely indifferent to the most 
severe weather, after it is a few weeks old. It may be 
taught to sleep in houses with other poultry, if it has 
been hatched under a hen. A guinea hatched under hens 
refuses to be weaned and will follow the mother hen 
until the next spring after hatched, when it mates for 
itself. We have known guinea hens which were laving 
to persist in following the hen that had hatched them the 
year before. 
Guineas should be hatched under common hens, as the 
guinea hen is a very careless mother and except during 
the most favorable seasons will only bring up a few of 
the chicks she hatches, Care must be taken to watch 
young guineas when they hatch or they will almost at 
once run away and get lost, only to die. They should 
be confined in a tight pen with sides at least 1’ high until 
they learn to follow the mother hen, which will be in a 
few days. <A young guinea can escape through a mar- 
