260 



GUINEA PINTADO. 



straggling hairy feathers : the skin is of a bluish 

 ash : the lower part of the neck is covered with 

 feathers of a purple hue : the rest of the plumage 

 is blue-black, marked with white spots of different 

 sizes, on the whole of the feathers, the breast 

 only excepted, which is of an uniform grey-blue : 

 the g^-eater quills are white ; and the rest are 

 similar to the upper parts of the plumage, spotted 

 and longitudinally barred with white : tail the 

 same. 



The White-breasted Guinea Hen of Brown is 

 nothing more than a variety of this species : it 

 differs merely in having a white breast, marked 

 with large spots of black, in which are smaller 

 ones of white : the four first quills, and the same 

 number of the outer greater coverts, are also white : 

 this is said to inhabit Jamaica, but it is abundant 

 in all countries where the first described is kept. 

 Other variations also occur : in some the ground 

 colour of the plumage is blue ; in others so very 

 pale as to render the white spots nearly invisible : 

 again it not unfrequently appears of white, with 

 the spots of a brighter colour. A hybrid has been 

 produced between a male Pintado and a common 

 Domestic Hen. 



Africa is the native place of this bird, from 

 whence it has been diffused over every part of 

 Europe, the West Indies, and America. It is now 

 sufficiently common in our poultry yards, but from 

 the circumstance of the young ones being difficult 

 to rear, they are not bred in numbers at all equal 

 to those of the domestic poultry. The female 



