THE GUINEA FOWL. 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
THE GUINEA FOWL. 
T he Guinea fowls, of wliicli there are eight distinct species at present known 
to naturalists, are all natives of the African continent, or 'of the adjacent 
Island of Madagascar. They constitute the genus Numida, of which the West 
African wild species, N. Meleagris, is generally regarded as the origin of our 
domestic breed. This bird is found wild in Western Africa, extending from the 
Gambia southwards, through Ashantee to the Gaboon ; it is also said to exist in the 
Cape de Verd Islands. Naturalists, however, incline to the belief that the East 
African, or, as it is generally termed, the Abyssinian Guinea fowl, N. ptiloryncha, 
found in Kordossan, Abyssinia, and Sennaar, is more likely to he the one to which 
we are indebted for this addition to our comparatively meagre stock of domesticated 
animals. As the Guinea fowl was well known to the Romans, and bore a high 
value at the public and private feasts at the time when the luxury of the empire 
was at its greatest height, this idea is exceedingly probable. The Romans held 
comparatively little intercourse with South Western Africa, hut were so situated as 
to receive birds from the eastern part of the continent through Eg^-pt, with which 
country they had constant intercourse. 
