The MITRED PINTADO (_Numida mitrata_) has the horn-like excrescence on
the head much developed, and the chin-lappets narrow and long. The pale
black plumage is spotted with white; the feathers on the nape and throat
are striped with greyish white, the secondary quills have the outer web
partially streaked with white. The eye is greyish brown; the upper part
of the head and base of the beak are bright red, a crescent-shaped patch
behind the eye, the hinder part of the neck, and the throat are greenish
blue, shaded with dark blue; the fleshy lappets are violet at the base and
bright red at the tip; the comb or horn is pale yellow, the beak greyish
yellow, and the foot blackish blue. This species is twenty-two inches
long, the wing measures ten and the tail seven inches. The Mitred Pintado
is found, though not abundantly, in Madagascar and Guinea, but is common
in Mozambique and in Abyssinia. We learn from Layard that its habitat
extends over the whole of the frontier district, into Ovampolando on the
west, and to the Mozambique on the east, and that it is still abundant in
some places within the colony, where the mimosa bush affords it sufficient
shelter. It feeds on grain and insects, and lays from seven to ten eggs,
rather sharply pointed at the small and rounded at the obtuse end. These
are of a dark cream-colour, minutely dotted over with pin-points of brown.
The same authority tells us that these Guinea Fowls rear their young much
in the same manner as our Pheasants do. If the female is startled she
flies off and leaves her little family, who at once disperse in every
direction, and hide so cunningly amongst the grass and bushes that they
are seldom discovered: they usually remain in their concealment until
called together again by the shrill note of the parent bird. In the Fish
River Valley they roost upon the willow-branches that project over the
large holes of water, out of the reach of wild cats. The _Phasidus niger_
and _Agelastus meleagrides_, two very similar species, are natives of
Western Africa.
According to M. du Chaillu, the _Phasidus niger_ was met with by him from
fifty to one hundred miles in the interior, reckoning from Cape Lopez,
and was unknown to the inhabitants of the Cape. He obtained but a single
specimen.