N U M I D I A. 
332 
fafh or girdle. They were eminent for their fkill in hurl¬ 
ing the javelin and throwing darts, which they ufed in 
war ; and they chofe to come to a general action in the 
night. Amongft them defertion was no difgrace. 
Little is known of thefe people for feveral of the ear- 
lieft centuries; and it would lead us beyond our pre¬ 
ferred limits, if we gave a minute detail of their confli&s 
•with the Carthaginians and with the Romans. Towards 
the dole of the exiftence of Numidia as an independent 
kingdom, Juba, the fon of a Numidian prince, defeended 
from Mafllniffa, was grofsly infulted by Caefar; and, in 
confequence of this, the African prince adhered to the 
Pompeian faction, gained fome advantage over one of 
Ca;far’s lieutenants, and reduced Ctefar himfelf to great 
extremities. At length Casfar overthrew Scipio, Juba, 
and Labienus; and, by a decifive aflion, made himfelf 
tnafter of Numidia, which he reduced to a Roman pro¬ 
vince. See Rome. 
NUMID'IA, f The Pintado, or Guinea-fowl; a 
genus of birds of the order gallime. The generic cha- 
rafters are—Bill ftrong and fhort, the bafe covered with 
a carunculate cere receiving the noftrils; the head is 
horned with a compreffed coloured callus; tail fliort, 
bending down ; body fpeckled. There are four fpecies. 
i. Numidia meleagris, the Guinea-fowl. There are 
three varieties of this fpecies : a, with the caruncles at 
the gape double; | 3 , breaft white; y, body is entirely 
white. 
The Guinea-fowl is an inhabitant of Africa, and is 
■domefticated in moll parts of Europe ; is about twenty- 
two inches long, and makes a harlh unpleafant cry. The 
bill is of areddilh horn-colour; the head is blue; the crown 
conic, compreffed, with a bluifh-red protuberance; the 
upper part of the neck is of a bluifh-afh, almoft naked ; 
the lower part is feathered, verging to violet; the body 
is black, with round white lpots; the legs are grey-brown ; 
and the gular caruncle of the male bluifh, female red. 
The meleagris is noify, reftlefs,and turbulent; continually 
moving from place to place, and domineering over the 
whole poultry-yard. The turkey, though twice its fize, 
is in continual apprehenfion from its petulance. The 
birds of this genus feem in many refpefts to referable the 
common poultry: like them, they fcratch the ground, 
and go in large flocks, feeding their young and pointing 
cut their food. In the Cape de Verd iflands feveral hun¬ 
dreds are fometimes feen together; here the inhabitants 
hunt them with dogs; and, as their flight is heavy, they 
are eaflly run down, and fo killed or caught. The male 
and female fo nearly refemble each other, that they can 
hardly be diftinguifhed; the only difference is, that the 
wattles, which are blue in the former, incline to red in 
the latter. 
Pintados, as has been obferved, were originally from 
Africa, and were known under the name of Nwriidian 
hens; and it appears that this fowl, which had anciently 
been reared with fo much care at Rome, was afterwards 
entirely loft in Europe. We can difeover no trace of it 
in the writings of the middle ages ; and we find it only 
begun to be fpoken of after the Europeans had vifited the 
weftern coafts of Africa, in their voyages to India by the 
.('ape of Good Hope. But not only have they now dif- 
fufed thefe birds through Europe, but tranfported them 
into America; and the pintados have buffered various al¬ 
terations in their external qualities, from the influence 
of different climates. Charlevoix fays, there is at St. 
Domingo a fpecies fmaller than the ordinary fort. But 
thefe are probably wild-fowl, bred from fuch as were in¬ 
troduced by the Caftilians foon after the conqueft of the 
irtand. It is worth obferving, that this breed, originally 
from Guinea, and tranfported to America, where it had 
once been reduced to the domeftic ftate, but buffered to 
grow wild, could not afterwards be reclaimed to its former 
condition ; and that the planters in St. Domingo have 
been fince obliged to import tame ones from Africa, to 
propagate in their farm-yards. The plumage of the pin¬ 
tado, though not decorated with rich and dazzling co¬ 
lours, is ftill remarkably beautiful. It is of a bluifli-grey 
ground, fprinkled with confiderable regularity with white 
roundilh fpeckles refembling pearls. Hence fome of the 
moderns have beftowed on this bird the name of pearled 
hen; and the ancients applied the epithets vqriu and 
guttata. Mr. M‘Quin fays, the bird, at firft fight, appears 
as if it had been pelted by a ftrong Ihower of hail. The 
reader is to judge for himfelf, from the correct reprefenta- 
tion on the annexed Engraving, at fig. i. Thefe fpots, 
which we find of a larger dimenfion upon fome of the 
feathers of the pheafant, and bigger ftill on the tail of 
the peacock, are convincing proofs of a near relationfliip 
between thefe fowls. 
The feathers on the middle part of the neck are very 
fliort near its arch, and there they are entirely wanting. 
From that part they gradually lengthen unto the brealt, 
and there they are three inches long. Thefe feathers are 
of a downy texture from their root to near their middle, 
and this part is covered by the tips of the feathers in the 
preceding row, confiding of ftiff webs interwoven with 
each other. It has fliort wings, and a pendulous tail, 
which, joined to the arrangement of its feathers, makes 
it look as if it were hunch-backed; but this appearance 
is falfe, for no veftige of it remains when the bird is 
plucked. The fize is nearly that of an ordinary hen, but 
the form and fliape is like that of the partridge ; hence it 
has been called the Neivfoundland partridge. 
The pintado is an exceedingly noify bird, and for this 
reafon Brown has termed it gallus clamojus. Its cry is 
fharp, and, by its continuance, becomes fo troublefome, 
that, though theflefliis very delicate, and much fuperior 
to that of ordinary poultry, many people have given over 
breeding it. It lays and hatches like the ordinary hen ; 
but its fecundity appears to be not the fame in different 
climates; or, at leaft, that this is much greater in the do¬ 
meftic condition, where food is more abundant, than in 
the wild ftate, which often affords but a fcanty fubfift- 
ence. In a domeftic ftate, and well fed, each hen ‘will 
lay from a hundred to a hundred and fifty eggs in a fea- 
fon. Thefe eggs are fmaller in proportion than thofe of 
an ordinary hen, and their ftiell is much harder. But 
there is a remarkable difference between the eggs of the 
domeftic pintados and thofe of the wild fort; the latter 
are marked with fmall round fpots, like thofe on their plu¬ 
mage ; but thofe of the former are at firft of a kind of 
red, which afterwards fades, and at laft runs into the 
faint colour of a dried rofe. Their eggs are frequently 
put to be hatched under turkeys, or common hens. The 
time of incubation is three weeks, more orlefs, according 
to the heat of the feafon or the climate. 
The young pintados are very tender; and, being na¬ 
tives of the burning climates of Africa, are with difficul¬ 
ty reared in our northern countries. They feed on grafs- 
lioppers and worms, on toads, frogs, and infedls, and on 
all forts of grain. The pintado, it is faid, will breed 
with the common hen; but it is a kind of artificial 
union, which requires attention to bring about: they 
mull be bred together from their infancy ; and the hy¬ 
bridous intercourfe gives birth to a progeny of an imper- 
fe£t ftrufture, and difavowed, as it were, by nature. 
Their eggs are deftitute of the prolific power, and the 
race is extinguilhed in the death of the individuals. The 
pintados that are raifed in our poultry-yards have an - 
excellent flavour, in no refpefl inferior to that of par¬ 
tridges ; but the wild fort have the molt exquifite relilh, 
and exceed the delicacy of the pheafant. The eggsof the 
pintado too are a very agreeable food, and far excel thofe 
of the common poultry. 
The pintado being of African origin, hence came all 
the names that have been beftowed on it: hen of Africa, 
of Numidia, the foreign hen, that of Barbary, of Tunis, 
of Mauritania, of Lybia, of Guinea, of Egypt, of Pha- 
roah, and even of Jerufalem. Some Mahometans called 
them Jerufalem hens, and fold them to the Chriftians for 
whatever 
