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their yet tender frame. On several occasions, however, when the hole was thirty, forty, or more yards from a bayou or other piece of water, I observed that the mother suffered the young to fall on the grass and dried leaves beneath the tree, and afterwards led them directly to the nearest edge of the next pool or creek. At this early age, the young answer to their parent's call with a mellow pee, pee, pee, often and rapidly repeated."-American Ornithological Biography, vol. 3, pp. 54, 55.

The Musk Duck is excellent eating if killed just before it is fully fledged; but it is longer in becoming fit for the table than the common Duck. Their flesh is at first high-flavoured and tender, but an old bird would be rank, and the toughest of tough meats. It is strange that a dish should now be so much out of fashion as scarcely ever to be seen or tasted, which, under the name of Guinea Duck, graced every feast a hundred and fifty years ago, and added dignity to every table at which it was produced.

The domesticated bird is most frequently particoloured, with irregular patches of black, white, and brownish grey, the black prevailing on the upper, and the white on the under surface of the body. It has been seen that occasionally they are white; but their filthy habits render these not desirable. Brown and white is a more rare colouring. Sometimes they are met with entirely black, which is by far the most ornamental variety; it is, moreover, as we are informed, the colour of the wild bird; and in a collection of ornamental poultry it is desirable to select those individuals which most closely represent the native appearance of their species. The black is beautifully metallic, somewhat iridescent and shaded with golden green. The feathers on the back are broad, and exhibit a handsome imbricated appearance. The eye is large, full, and clear; and the red tubercles and skin at the base of the bill are strikingly contrasted with whatever coloured plumage the bird may be clothed with.

THE GUINEA-FOWL.

THIS is no great favourite with many keepers of poultry, and is one of those unfortunate beings which, from having been occasionally guilty of a few trifling faults, has gained a much worse reputation than it really deserves, as if it were the most ill-behaved bird in creation. Whereas, it is useful, ornamental, and interesting during its life; and when dead a desirable addition to our dinners, at a time when all other poultry is scarce.

The best way to begin keeping Guinea-fowls is to procure a sitting of eggs from some friend or neighbour on whom you can depend for their freshness, and also, if possible, from a place where only a single pair is kept. The reason of this will be explained hereafter. A Bantam Hen is the best mother; she is lighter, and less likely to injure them by treading on them than a full-sized fowl. She will cover nine eggs, and incubation will last a month. The young are excessively pretty. When first hatched, they are so strong and active as to appear not to require the attention really necessary to rear them. Almost as soon as they are dry from the moisture of the egg, they will peck each other's toes, as if supposing them to be worms, will scramble with each other for a crumb of bread, and will domineer over any little bantam or chicken that may perhaps have been brought off in the same clutch with themselves. No one, who did not know, would guess, from their appearance, of what species of bird they were the offspring.

The young of the Guinea-Fowl are striped like those of the Emu, as shown in the late Mr. Bennet's pleasing description of the Zoological Gardens, as they were in his days. Their orange-red bills and legs, and the dark, zebralike stripes with which they are regularly marked from head to tail, bear no traces of the speckled plumage of their parents.

Ants' eggs (so called), hard-boiled egg chopped fine, small worms, maggots, bread crumbs, chopped meat or suet, whatever in short is most nutritious, is their most appropriate food. This need not be offered to them in large quantities, as it would only be devoured by the mother Bantam as soon as she saw that her little ones had for the time satisfied their appetites, or would be stolen by sparrows, &c.; but it should be frequently administered to them in small supplies. Feeding them three, four, or five times a day, is not nearly often enough; every half-hour during daylight they should be tempted to fill their little craws, which are soon emptied again by an extraordinary power and quickness of digestion. The newly-hatched Guinea-fowl is a tiny creature, a mere infinitesimal of the full-grown bird; its growth is consequently very rapid, and requires incessant supplies. A check once received can never be recovered. In such cases they do not mope and pine for a day or two, like young Turkeys under similar circumstances, and then die; but in half an hour after being in apparent health, they fall on their backs, give a convulsive kick or two, and fall victims, in point of fact, to starvation. demands of nature for the growth of bone, muscle, and particularly of feather, are so great that no subsequent abundant supply of food can make up for a fast of a couple of hours. The feathers still go on, grow, grow, grow, in geometrical progression, and drain the sources of vitality still faster than they can be supplied, till the bird faints and expires from inanition. I have even fancied that I have seen a growth of quill and feather after death in young poultry which we had failed in rearing. The possibility of such a circumstance is supported by the wellknown fact of the growth of hair and nails in many deceased persons.

The

This constant supply of suitable food is, I believe, the great secret in rearing the more delicate birds, Turkeys, Guinea-fowls, Pheasants, &c., never to suffer the growth of the chick (which goes on whether it has food in its

stomach or not), to produce exhaustion of the vital powers, for want of the necessary aliment. Young Turkeys, as soon as they once feel languid from this cause, refuse their food when it is at last offered to them (just like a man whose appetite is gone, in consequence of having waited too long for his dinner), and never would eat more, were food not forced down their throats, by which operation they may frequently be recovered; but the little Guineafowls give no notice of this faintness till they are past all cure; and a struggle of a few minutes shows that they have indeed outgrown their strength, or, rather, that the material for producing strength has not been supplied to them in a degree commensurate with their growth.

A dry sunny corner in the garden will be the best place to coop them with their Bantam Hen. As they increase in strength they will do no harm, but a great deal of good, by devouring worms, grubs, caterpillars, maggots, and all sorts of insects. By the time their bodies are little bigger than those of sparrows, they will be able to fly with some degree of strength; and it is very pleasing to see them essay the use of their wings at the call of their fostermother, or the approach of their feeder. It is one out of millions of instances of the provident wisdom of the Almighty Creator, that the wing and tail feathers of young gallinaceous birds, with which they require to be furnished at the earliest possible time, as a means of escape from their numerous enemies, exhibit the most rapid growth of any part of their frame. Other additions to their complete stature are successively and less immediately developed. The wings of a chicken are soon fledged enough to be of great assistance to it; the spurs, comb, and ornamental plumage do not appear till quite a subsequent period.

When the young Guinea-fowl are about the size of thrushes, or perhaps a little larger (unless the summer be very fine), their mother Bantam (which we suppose to be a tame, quiet, matronly creature) may be suffered to range

loose in the orchard and shrubbery, and no longer permitted to enter the garden, lest her family should acquire a habit of visiting it at a time when their presence would be less welcome than formerly. They must still, however, receive a bountiful and frequent supply of food; they are not to be considered safe till the horn on their heads is fairly grown. Oatmeal (i. e. groats), as a great treat, cooked potatoes, boiled rice, anything in short that is eatable, may be thrown down to them. They will pick the bones left after dinner with great satisfaction, and no doubt benefit to themselves. The tamer they can be made, the less troublesome will those birds be which you retain for stock; the more kindly they are treated, the more they are petted and pampered, the fatter and better conditioned will those others become which you design for your own table, or as presents to your friends, and the better price will you get if you send them to market.

At a certain period they will have got beyond the management of their good mother-in-law, and will cast off her authority. They will form what has appropriately been called a "pack;" prowling about in a body after insects and mast, or grazing together (for they eat a great deal of grass*) still in a pack; fiercely driving away any intruder on their society, and all giving tongue in one chorus at the approach of any danger.

Birds thus reared on the spot where they are meant to be kept, are sure to thrive better and give less trouble than those procured from a distance; which sometimes will not remain in their new home, but wander about in search of their old haunts till they either find them, or are themselves lost, destroyed, or stolen. All the poultrybooks that I have seen are very meagre, and sometimes erroneous in their directions for the management of the

*Mr. Swainson points out the analogy which exists between the horned birds, the Cassowary, Curassow, and Guinea-fowl among the feathered tribes, and the ruminants among quadrupeds; the quantity of grass eaten by the last-mentioned birds confirms his view of the subject.

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