374 BRITISH BIRDS, 



fowl of South Africa. M. tiarata, in Madagascar, probably- 

 only a local race. All the above have a bony casque. 



N. cristatus, the Crested Guinea-fowl of West Africa. N. 

 Puclierantii, in Zanzibar, probably only an Eastern form of 

 cristatus. N. plumifera, the Plumed Guinea-fowl of West 

 Africa. All the last three have a plume of feathers in place of 

 a casque. And, lastly, there is the quaint N. vulturina or Vul- 

 ture Guinea-fowl, found in Eastern Africa. 



Our domestic species is said by some to be descended from 

 the West African species, N. meleagris, which extends from 

 Gambia through Ashantee to Gaboon, and is also found in the 

 Cape de Verd Islands. More probably it is from the Abyssinian 

 guinea-fowl that ours have come, as it was a bird well known 

 to the Romans, and they had constant intercourse with its 

 native haunts via Egypt. 



The guinea-fowls take from twenty-six to twenty-eight days 

 to incubate. They are extremely shy, although long under 

 domestication, and are of the greatest service to fruit-growers, 

 if kept in orchards, where they devour large numbers of grubs 

 and larvae that fall to and are on the ground. The males are 

 spurless. Naturally the guinea-fowl is monogamous, yet we 

 often find one cock amongst several hens, and wonder that the 

 eggs are unfertile. White varieties are frequently seen. 



The Pea-fowl (Pavo cristatus). The pea-fowl is a native of 

 India and Ceylon. Only three species seem to be known — our 

 common domestic one, the Javan species (P. muticus), and a 

 black-winged species (P. nigripennis). These birds have a crest 

 of feathers on the head, and the male has some of the back- 

 feathers and the upper tail-coverts of considerable length and 

 ocellated. The pea-fowl was well known to the ancients from 

 the time of Solomon. It is looked upon with veneration by 

 the Hindoos, and in many States is not allowed to be shot. 

 They live to ten and twelve and even more years old, and look 

 after their young through the winter. Incubation lasts twenty- 

 eight days. It is said that they were introduced into Europe 



