F emale«
Place and
Manners.
upper mandible, at the bafe, hangs a blueilh red wattle : the
upper part of the neck is fparingly befet with hairy feathers, and
the Ikin which appears between is of blueilh alh-colour: the
lower part of the neck is feathered, and inclines more to violet:
the reft of the plumage is black, marked with round fpots of
white of different lizes, which are crofted in the intermediate
fpaces with grey, the wings and tail not excepted: the legs
are greyilh brown.
The female has the wattles rather lefs in fize, and red, which
in the male are inclined to blue.
The native place of this bird is, without doubt, Africa; and
is the Meleagris * of old authors. It is fuppofed originally to have
come from Nubia f , and was efteemed in the Roman banquets.
Met with wild in flocks of two or three hundred, by various
travellers. Damper found them in numbers in the ifland of
Mayo J ; and Forfter fpeaks of them as plenty at St- Jago §; but
they have been tränfported into the Wefl Indies | and America **,
and are now in a wild ftate in thofe places, as well as domefti-
cated.
This fpecies is very common alfo in Europe, and the flelh
of the young birds much efteemed. The female lays many eggs
in a feafon fd-, which by fome are fet under Hens, and require
* Pallas Spic.iv. p. 15.— Miß. des cif. ii. p. 172. note (0).
f Hajfelquifi.— From whence he fays alfo Apes, Parrots, Stc. are brought to
jCairo, and other parts of Africa.
I Damp. Voy.iii. p* i. p. 23. § Forß. Voy. p. 39. [J Sloan. ** Kalm.
f f As far as an hundred to an hundred and fifty, at St. Domingo.—Hiß. des
oif. vol. ii. p. 185.
3 carç
care in the bringing up, though in fome feafons may be
raifed without difficulty. They are fond of haying a large range;
but if there is much ffielter, the hen will often fecrete a neft,
and appear on a fudden with more than twenty * young ones at
her heels. This I have known feveral times to have happened, f The egg is fmaller than that of a Hen, and more of a rounded
lhape; the colour a reddilh white, obfeurely freckled with a
darker colour,
This fpecies is very clamorous the day through, having a
creaking harlh kind of note, fomewhat like a door turning on its
rufty hinges, or an ungreafed axle-tree-, and when at rooft is
often fo eaftly difturbed, as to hinder the reft of a family, the
whole night through, from its noife.
La Peintade a Poitrine blanche, Brif. orn. i. p. 180. A.
Guinea Hen, Albin. ii. pi. 35.
White-breafted Guinea Hen, Brown. Jam. p. 47°*
large fpots of black, in which are fmaller ones of white•
the four firft quills, and the fame number of the outmoft greater
eoverts, are alfo white..
This is faid to be found at Jamaicay and is in fa£t no more
than a mere variety, of which many others are likewife found in
England, as it varies much. In fome, the ground of the plumage
is blueilh, inftead of blacky in others, fo very pale as to make
the white fpots very little confpicuous y and not unfrequently of
* Three or four and twenty very common, and not .unfrequently. as. far, as
twenty-/even*
V ar. A«
WHITE*
BREASTED P.
D escription«
Place.
a pure