Guinea corn

( Bot. ) See HOLCUS. Guinea-fowl, GUINEA-HEN, or PINTADO, n. (Zool.) A genus of gallinaceous birds, the genus Numida of Linnæus, family Phasianide, natives of Africa and its adjacent islands; their manners are similar to those of the domestic poultry, and their food the same. The common G.-F., Numida meleagris (Fig. 1213), is bigger than a large cock; the head is bare of feathers, and covered with a naked bluish skin; on the top is a callous conical protuberance; and on each side of the upper mandible, at the base, hangs a loose wattle, which in the female is red, and in the male bluish; the upper part of the neck is almost naked, being very thinly furnished with a few straggling hairy feathers; the skin is of a bluish ash; the lower part of the neck is covered with feathers of a purple hue; but the general color of the plumage is dark bluish-gray, sprinkled with round white spots of different sizes, over the whole of the feathers, the breast only excepted, which is of a uniform gray blue; the greater quills are white; and the rest are similar to the upper parts of the plumage, spotted and longitudi IMG:content-0466.jpg:[graphic] Fig . 1213.- GUINEA-FOWL, or PINTADO. (Numida meleagris.) nally barred with white. Its wings are short, and the tail pendulous, or pointing downwards. This bird is now common in our poultry yards, but from the circumstance of the young ones being difficult to rear, they are not bred in numbers at all equal to those of the domestic poultry. The female lays many eggs in a season, which she frequently secretes till she has produced her young brood. The egg is smaller than that of the common hen, and of a rounder shape; in color reddish-white, obscurely freckled with a darker color; and is delicious eating. The G.-F. is a restle and clamorous bird; its voice, harsh and unpleasant, is compared by Latham to a door turning upon its rusty hinges, or to an ungreased axle-tree. During the night it perches on high places, and if disturbed, alarms everything within hearing by its unceasing cry. It scrapes in the ground like the hen, and delights in rolling in the dust to free itself from insects. In a wild state these birds a ociate in flocks, giving the preference to marshy places, where they subsist almost wholly on insects, worms, and seeds. They formed a part of the Roman banquets; and they are greatly esteemed by many persons, who consider their flavor to resemble that of the pheasant. Guin'ea, (Gulf of,) formed by the Atlantic on the coast of New Guinea, between Lat. 6o 20 and 1o S., Lon 7° 30′ W. and 10° H. Guinea, (New.) See PAPUA.