294 GUINEA FOWL. Chap. YIIL 



from crossing with common turkeys, occasionally produced much 

 paler-coloured birds, and one that was almost white, but not an 

 albino. These half-wild turkeys in thus slightly differing from 

 each other present an analogous case with the wild cattle kept 

 in the several British parks. We must suppose that the 

 differences have resulted from the prevention of free inter- 

 crossing between birds ranging over a wide area, and from the 

 changed conditions to which they have been exposed in 

 England. In India the climate has apparently wrought a still 

 greater change in the turkey, for it is described by Mr. Blyth 42 

 as being much degenerated in size, " utterly incapable of rising 

 on the wing," of a black colour, and " with the long pendulous 

 appendages over the beak enormously developed." 



The Guinea Fowl. 



The domesticated guinea-fowl is now believed by some natural- 

 ists to be descended from the Numida iitilorhynca, which inhabits 

 very hot, and, in parts, extremely arid districts in Eastern 

 Africa ; consequently it has been exposed in this country to 

 extremely different conditions of life. Nevertheless it has hardly 

 varied at all, except in the plumage being either paler or darker- 

 coloured. It is a singular fact that this bird varies more in 

 colour in the West Indies and on the Spanish Main, under a 

 hot though humid climate, than in Europe. 43 The guinea-fowl 

 has become thoroughly feral in Jamaica and in St. Domingo, 44 

 and has diminished in size; the legs are black, whereas the 

 legs of the aboriginal African bird are said to be grey. This 

 small change is worth notice on account of the often-repeated 

 statement that all feral animals invariably revert in every 

 character to their original type. 



42 E. Blyth, in * Annals and Mag. of singular pale-coloured varieties im- 



Nat. Hist.,' 1817, vol. xx. p. 391. ported from Barbadoes and Demerara. 

 : 43 Eoulin makes this remark in 44 For St. Domingo, see M. A. Salle, 



'Mem. de divers Savans, l'Acad. des in 'Proc. Soc. Zoolog.,' 1857, p. 236.' 



Sciences,' torn, vi., 1835, p. 349. Mr. Mr. Hill remarks to me, in his letter, on 



Hill, of Spanish Town, in a letter to the colour of the legs of the feral birds 



me, describes five varieties of the in Jamaica, 

 guinea-fowl in Jamaica. I have seen 



