80 
and yellow leaf’ of age, having snapped spontaneously in the middle, and dropped their withered heads upon the ground. 
Ever and anon, as we wind among the more sacred glades, a Duiker springs from the brake, and clearing with a bound 
the tops of the waving grass, pigmy-like vanishes amid the gloom of an adjacent thicket, Then a flock of slate-coloured 
pintados may be descried through an opening avenue, busily raking up the earth, and striving by weltering in the dust, 
to free themselves from a host of parasitic tormentors. Flocks of forty or fifty of the screaming fowls gather as we 
advance, and precipitately abscond before our path. Elevating their crested heads, they shuffle along in laughable confusion, 
shaking their hunched backs, and uttering that far from melodious ery with which the ears of all are familiar. Now in 
their onward progress they have aroused a shy herd of ruminating Pallahs, of which the dun leader comes skipping gal- 
lantly to the front, where, with 
“airy step and glorious eye,” 
he begs leave to inquire, on behalf of a large parcel of mincing females, what may be the cause of this alarm? A crack 
of the rifle, which lays him sprawling on the red sand, proves the instantaneous reply. Freedom in their looks and 
independence in their tufted heels, away go the survivors, scampering and galloping amid their native groves. In two 
seconds more they are both out of danger and out of sight, the mortal remains of their fallen leader being in the mean, 
time, unceremoniously strapped upon the back of a pack-horse, there to keep company with a Duiker, three brace of 
euinea-fowl, and a pair of leathern trousers—which latter, having been vacated by the bandy legs of Frederick Dangler- 
are now crammed full as they can hold of the gigantic eggs of the ostrich. 
Africa must be considered the great nursery of the Numida Meleagris. Her western shores have always formed the 
peculiar habitat of the species, which there unite in even much more extensive flocks than we met with in the interior of 
the continent — flying in large bands, and resorting at stated hours to the neighbouring springs or rivulets, whence at sunset 
they retire to the woods and perch upon the loftiest trees. The title by which they were generally known to the ancients 
would render it probable that the specimens first imported into Europe, were brought from Nubia, though the testimony of 
Varro proves them to have been sufficiently rare before the African coast. was visited by Europeans. During the zenith of 
the Roman empire, the bird was held in the highest estimation, and considered a delicacy at the banquets of the great; but 
with her decline it became lost altogether in Europe until eventually restored by the Spanish navigators.»* To the Dutch 
Colonists of the Cape, the guinea-fowl is known by the facetious appellation of Jan Tadentaal, and in many of the more 
remote districts, where it is still common, considerable troops are to be found lying among long grass and undergrowth along 
the dry beds of rivers. Flushed by the farmer’s dog, they ascend, whiting like pheasants, high above the tops of the stunted 
trees; and when weary, not unfrequently perch upon the branches. On our way to Graaff Reinet, we were first treated on 
Mynheer de Klerck’s estate near Somerset, to the to us then novel sport, but subsequently, towards the tropic, a day seldom 
passed without our seeing them around our bivouac in abundance, The Pintado in its wild state exhibits the fleshy caruncles 
on the cheeks, and the callous crest on the cranium, rather less developed than in our domestic bird; but it possesses the 
same lively, restless, and clamorous disposition; the monotonous cry, which has aptly been compared to the creaking of rusty 
hinges, being often incessant for hours together. Morning and evening the wary troops emerge into the green glades to feed, 
and about roosting time their wretched noise becomes so perfectly stunning as uniformly to betray the position on which they 
design to pass the night. Under many of the isolated trees which grow along the river banks in the interior, the ground is 
absolutely white with their ordure; and although usually difficult to be approached during the day, we could frequently about 
dusk perceive them flying up in the manner of tame fowls, one after another to their perch, until the loaded branches had 
become such a positive poultry-house, that the larder might easily be replenished with any number, 
* Cuvier. 
oe 
Pehl Rel, Ae” PPE ROM OF Late LTAPTZ: 
