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As the African hen is here likewife fpoken of, and faid to have 

 been more commonly called the Numidian hen, it explains that 

 Martial cannot allude to the peintade in the following lines. After 

 having ftated that his friend Fauftinus's villa was a mere farm, 

 the poet enumerates his poultry : 



" Vagatur omnis turba fordidae cortis ; 



*' Argutus anfer, gemmeique pavones 



" Nomenque debet quae rubentibus pennis, 



f Et pi£r.a perdix, Numidicceque guttatae, 



" Et impiorum phafiana Colchorum, 



" Rhodias fuperbi foeminas premunt galli." 



Martial, L. iii. Ep. 58. 

 I cannot but rather think that Martial defcribes thcfe birds 

 from a picture, than what were before his eyes in the farm-yard 

 (for fo I tranflate fordidte cortis) becaufe the Phaenicopterus, or 

 Flamingo, is plainly alluded to by 



Nomenque dedit quae rubentibus _pennis; 

 and though fome of the Roman Epicures were fond of the 

 flamingo's tongue, yet it cannot be well conceived that they 

 were reared as poultry. But the moft material part is to de- 

 termine what the poet means by 

 Numidicceque guttata* 

 As I have jufr. now proved from the words of Columella, 

 that the African and Numidian hen were the fame bird, and 

 that it differed in moft material circumfrances from the peintade, 

 I cannot underftand any thing more to be implied by this ex- 

 preffion, than the common fowl from Numidia, fpotted in a 

 rather particular manner, as the penciled and partridge hens are 

 with us, the varieties being fo numerous; but trill with fome 

 care fuch a beautiful breed may be continued for a considerable 

 time. In this fame poem, therefore, we find mention of the 



U fowl 



