THE CRESTED GUINEA-FOWL.

Numida cristata.-LATHAM.

PLATE XXVIII.

Peintade à crete, Sonnini's Buffon.-Peintade cornal, Temminck, Pigeons et Gallinacés, ii. 448.-Numida cristata, Crested Pintada, Latham, General History, viii. p. 148. -Vieillot's Gallerie, pl. ccix.

THIS bird is considerably less than the Common Guinea-fowl, represented on the next Plate, which ought properly to .have come first in the order, the head and neck are bare, and of a dull blue, shaded into red upon the head. On the head, instead of the hard casque, there is an ample crest of hairy-like disunited feathers of a bluish-black, reaching as far forward as the nostrils, but in general turned backwards. The whole plumage, except the quills, is of a bluish-black, covered with small greyish spots, sometimes four, sometimes six, on each feather. The quills are pale yellowish brown, and the edges of the secondaries pure white, appearing very conspicuous from the contrast with the other parts. It is said by Temminck to inhabit the Great Namaquas country, and to have the same inanners with its congeners.