[336] DE GALLINIS GUINEIS.

Cap. XIII.

CHAPTER XIII

GUINEA HENS

Gallinaceo generi fortassis rectius quam superiores peregrinae alites istae, quas Guinea regio nobis subministrat, annumerandae sunt, quod in omnibus ferme exceptis crista, et calcaribus cum illo conveniant. Cum vero Ornithologus[1] eas exactissime nobis describat, descriptioni illius lubenter acquiescemus. Gallus Mauritanus, inquit, pulcherrima avis est, magnitudine corporis, figura, rostro, et pede Phasiano similis, vertice corneo in apicem corneum a posteriori parte praecipitem, in anteriori leniter acclivem elevato, armatus. Eum natura voluisse videtur inferiori capitis parti tribus veluti laciniis se promittentibus committere, atque deligare: inter oculum, et aurem utrinque una, et in fronte media item una omnibus in eiusdem cum vertice coloris: ita ut insideat capiti eo modo, quo ducalis pileus illustrissimo Duci Veneto, si quod iam adversum est aversum fieret. Rugosus is est inferius per circuitum: qua se attollit in directum in summo collo ad occipitium, nascuntur erecti quidam, atque nigri pili (non plumae) in contrarium versi. Oculi toti nigri, aeque et in orbem palpebrae, atque cilia. Si maculam in summa, et posteriori parte supercilii utriusque demas. Imum caput per longitudinem utrinque caro quaedam cal<l>osa colore sanguineo occupat, quae ne propendeat veluti palea, ut replicaretur, natura voluit, et averso ductu in duos processus acutos a capite liberos finiret. Ex hac carne attollunt se utrinque carunculae, quibus nares in ambitu vestiuntur, et caput in anteriori parte a caetero rostro pallido separatur. Harum ad rostrum margines inferiores, replicantur etiam leviter sub utraque nare.

Perhaps these birds, with which Guinea supplies us, more correctly must be numbered among gallinaceous genus rather than among the aforesaid exotic birds, since they resemble chickens from all points of view, except comb and spurs. Being that the Ornithologist is describing them in a more than exact way, I gladly rely on his description. He says: the Mauritanian rooster is a very beautiful bird, similar to pheasant in size of body, shape, beak and legs, supplied with a horny top of the head which behind goes down almost vertically toward a horny spike and which frontally is raising in a glacis. It seems that nature desired to endow and wrap it in the lower part of the head as with three projecting flaps: with one on both sides placed between the eye and the ear and likewise with one on the center of the front, all of the same color of the top of the head: so that the horny structure would lay on the head as the general-cap of the illustrious Venetian Doge, but as if what is behind were turned frontally. The cap in the lower part is wrinkled all around: where it rises in a straight line on the summit of the neck toward the nape, there some upright and black hair (not feathers) grow out turned in opposite direction. The eyes are entirely black, as well as the round eyelids and the eyelashes. If you except a spot at the upper and rear part of both eyebrows. A certain callous flesh of blood color occupies the lowest part of the head in all its length on both sides, and nature wanted that it was refolding so that it didn't hang as a wattle, and that with a contrary direction was ending in two acute extremities freed from the head. From this flesh on both sides the caruncles are arising by which the nostrils are clothed all around and by which the head is frontally separated from the remaining pale beak. The lower caruncles’ edges are refolding toward the beak and are slightly doing so also under both nostrils.

Quod inter verticem, et carnem est a dextra, et sinistra parte, squamosa incisura duplici notatae: in posteriori nulla, sed laeves, et veluti punctis quibusdam sui coloris respersae: Color illi sub faucibus exquisite est purpureus: in collo obscure purpureus: in caetero corpore per summa contuenti qualis consurgit, si album, et nigrum pollinem utcunque tenuiter tritum colori fusco rarius aspergas, nec tamen commisceas. Tali colori maculae albae ovales, aut rotundae per totum corpus inesse visuntur, per summa minores, per ima maiores comprehensae intervallis linearum, ut apparet in plumarum compositione naturali, qua se mutuo intersecant obliquo hinc inde ductu per summa tantum corporis, non item per ima. Id non ex toto corpore solum deprehendes, sed ex singulis avulsis pennis. Superiores enim, obliquis lineis se mutuo intersecantibus, aut si mavis orbiculis quibusdam ex albo, et nigro ut dixi, polline confectis, et per extremitatem coniunctis, ut in favis, aut retibus, maculas ovales, aut rotundas in spatiis fuscis comprehendunt: inferiore<s> non item. Utraeque tamen simili lege positae sunt. Nam in aliis plumis, ordine ita iunctae sunt, ut fere triangulos acutos faciant: in aliis, ut ovalem figuram repraesentent. Huius generis ordines tres, aut quatuor in singulis plumis sunt, ita ut minores in maiorum complexu reponantur. In extremis alis, et in cauda rectis lineis aequidistantibus procedunt per longitudinem maculae.

As far as what is present on right and left side between the top of the head and the fleshy substance is concerned, the caruncles are marked by a double incisure: behind no one of them is existing, but they are smooth and as sprinkled by dots of the same color. There under the mouth the color is exquisitely purple: on the neck it is dark purple: in the rest of the body, if one looks in a brief way, the color is like that which grows up if white and black dust is sprinkled even if thinly minced with a dark color in a rather scant quantity, without nevertheless to mix them. Inside this color there are some white oval or round spots to be seen which are present on the whole body, smaller in the highest part, greater in the lower part, surrounded by spaces of lines as you can observe in the natural structure of the feathers where they crisscross with a mutual slanting direction across only in the upper part of the body, but not so in the lower. You can notice this not only in the body taken in its whole, but also from single feathers plucked away. For the upper feathers, intersecting each other with slant lines, or, if you prefer, with some little circles made up, as I said, by white and black powder and joined at their end, as in honeycombs or in nets, they enclose oval or round spots in dark spaces: the lower feathers don't appear alike. However both are arranged according to a similar criterion. For in some feathers they are joined in such a way that they make like acute triangles: in others so that they recall an oval shape. In each feather three or four arrangements of this kind are existing, so that the smaller ones are embraced by the larger ones. At the end of the wings and on the tail the spots go lengthwise according to equidistant straight lines.

Inter Gallum, et Gallinam vix discernes, tanta, e<s>t similitudo, nisi quod Gallinae caput totum nigrum est. Vox illi est divisus sibilus, non sonorior, non maior voce Coturnicis, sed similior voci Perdicis, nisi quod sublimior ea est, nec ita clara. Haec omnia Caius.

Barely you would succeed in making a distinction between rooster and hen, so great is their resemblance, except that the head of the hen is entirely black. The voice of the rooster is a split whistle no more sonorous nor louder than the call of the quail, but it is more similar to the call of the partridge if it weren’t that the first one is more shrill and not so ringing. All these things have been written by John Kay.

Ego omnino Meleagridem hanc avem, vel Numidicam Gallinam appellarim, de qua suo loco inter Gallinas scripsimus. Eadem nimirum fuerit Afra avis in versu Horatiano[2]. Non Afra avis descendat in ventrem meum etc. Hactenus Ornithologus. Sed eiusmodi opinionem suo loco satis, superque ni fallimur, redarguimus. Insuper verum non est Gallinam totum caput nigrum habere, ut Caius ille scripsit, sed quo ad colorem maris capiti simillimum: at obtusius multo est tuberculum.

Undoubtedly I would have called this bird meleager or Numidian hen, about which I wrote at proper time among hens. Without any doubt it will have been that same African bird in a verse of Horace. The African bird doesn't have to go down in my belly, etc. Thus far the Ornithologist. But in its own place, if I am not mistaken, I blamed more than enough such opinion. In addition it is not true that the hen has the head entirely black as that Kay wrote, but as far as color is concerned she is very similar to the head of the male: but the tubercle is very more blunt.

Describit easdem Gallinas Bellonius[3] hunc fere in modum ex Gallico Latinus factus: Quemadmodum multae merces, quas e Guinea regione ad nos (Gallos) advehunt mercatores nobis primum erant incognitae, ita pariter hae Gallinae ante horum ad eam regionem navigationem nemini nostrum erant notae: sed nunc in aulis magnatum satis obviae, atque vulgares sunt. Aves sunt visu pulcherrimae pennis infinitis maculis candidis in spatiis nigris praeditae. Corpulentia vix nostrates Gallinas superant: tibiae tamen longiores sunt, quare etiam maiores apparent. Ex solo capitis gibbo quivis eam internoscat, quem supra frontem habet camelopardalis instar, calli naturam obtinentem, duritie fere cornu. Eiusmodi Gallinae perquam foecundae sunt, et multiparae.

Pierre Belon describes the same hens more or less in this way, translated in Latin from French: Likewise many merchandises which dealers bring to us (French) from Guinea region were first unknown to us, so in the same way before they sailed toward that region these hens were known to none of us: but now they are rather frequent in the residences of the magnates, and are common. They are very beautiful birds to be seen, provided with feathers with an endless number of white spots enclosed in black spaces. In body size they barely exceed our hens: however the legs are longer, therefore they appear even more tall. Whoever would be able to distinguish this hen on the basis of only the hump of the head which the bird carries above the front as the giraffe does and which has the structure of a callus and almost resembles to a horn for its hardness. Such hens are quite fertile and give birth to many chicks.