THE COMMON GUINEA FOWL. 
Numida meleagris Linn/Eus. 
PLATE XXIX. 
Nuraida meleagris, Linnaeus, Latham — Peintade, Buffon. 
— Peintade Mdldagride, Temminck, Pigeons et Gallinaces, 
ii. p. 431 — Guinea Pintado, Latham, General History. 
viii. p. 144. 
This beautiful but rather clumsily formed bird is 
very generally known. As its name proclaims, it is 
a native principally of the Guinea coast, although it 
is also found in various other parts of Africa, and is 
mentioned by both Sparman and Le Vaillant as oc- 
curring near the Cape of Good Hope. They are 
difficult to raise from the ground, but, when pressed, 
fly with a powerful flight, and for a considerable 
distance. They live in flocks, the amount of their 
broods, but at some seasons assemble in hundreds, 
when their noise in going to roost upon the trees 
is grating, and almost stunning. In this country 
they are kept in the poultry-yard, both for the 
sake of their young and eggs ; but being veiy 
quarrelsome to other poultry, and possessing great 
strength, they have often to be sacrificed to the pre- 
servation of the rest, or to be separately confined. 
