Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/327

 GUINEA (GULF OF) GUINEA, Gulf of, that part of the Atlantic which washes the shores of Upper Guinea be- tween Capes Palmas and Lopez, including the bights of Benin and Biafra. It receives the rivers Assinie, Tenda, Bossum Prah, Volta, Quorra or Niger, Old Calabar, Cameroons, Quaqua, Gaboon, and many smaller streams, and contains Fernando Po, Prince, and St. Thomas islands. It has two currents, one set- ting eastward from Cape Palmas and the other coming from the south ; they meet in the bight of Biafra and unite in one gradually expanding stream, which flows thence N. W., W., and S. W. GUINEA FOWL, or Pintado, a gallinaceous bird, of the turkey family, and genus numida (Linn.), characterized by a moderate bill, with arched culmeu and upper mandible overhang- ing the lower, and lateral margins smooth and curved ; nostrils large, oval, and partly covered by a membrane; wings moderate, with the ifth quill longest; tail short and pendent; tarsi onger than middle toe, without spurs, covered in front with broad divided scales ; toes mod- the anterior united at their base by a GUINEA PIG 313 Guinea Fowl (Numida meleagris). lembrane, the hind toe short and elevated ; claws short and very slightly curved. There are five species described by Gray, all of which have the head more or less naked, with fleshy caruncles below the bill, and some with a cal- lous crest ; the neck is long and slender, the body stout, and the feathers of the rump have an inflated appearance. They are peculiar to Africa, where they frequent woods on the banks of rivers in flocks of 200 or 300, scatter- ' ig in search of food, which consists of grains, rasshoppers, ants, and other insects ; when larmed, they attempt to escape by running rather than flight ; the eggs are numerous, and laid in a slight nest in a bush or thicket. The common Guinea or pea fowl {N. meleagris, Linn.) is slate-colored, covered all over with rounded white spots, and is about the size of the domestic cock. It was well known to the ancients, by whom it was domesticated for the sake of its flesh, and who named it meleagris. Guinea fowls are very noisy and troublesome, always quarrelling with the other inmates of the poultry yard ; they are hard to raise, from the delicacy of the young and their liability to disease ; their flesh is of fine flavor, and their eggs are excellent. They are not profitable to the farmer, are great eaters, requiring to be fed beyond what they can pick up by them- selves, and are apt to injure tender buds and flowers. One male suffices for 10 females; they lay in May or June 16 to 24 eggs, with a hard shell, of a yellowish white color with small brown points ; they are poor sitters and not very tender mothers ; incubation lasts three weeks, and is best performed by the common hen. The crested pintado (N. cristata, Pall.) has a crest of black feathers, and the body black with blue spots ; the mitred pintado (N. mitrata, Pall.) has the head surmounted by a conical helmet, and is black, white spotted. Both these species have the same habits as the first, and could be as easily domesticated. GUINEA GRASS, a name which, as well as Guinea corn, is applied in the southern states to sorghum cernuum, a grass closely related to broom corn ; but instead of having an erect panicle like that, its flower clusters are nod- ding. Like many other plants that have been introduced into cultivation and abandoned when found valueless, this remains, where the climate is favorable to it, as a weed. It gives an acceptable forage in the West Indies and parts of Florida, where better grasses do not succeed. GUINEA PIG, a South American rodent, of the subfamily caviina, and genus cavia (Klein). It will be seen that the common name conveys two erroneous impressions, as the animal is not found in Guinea, nor is it a pig ; the term Guinea is doubtless a corruption of Guiana, and the name pig derived from the grunting noise made by it when hungry. The wild Guinea pig, or restless cavy (G. aperea, Linn.), is about 10 in. long, with a thick heavy body ; short, wide, erect, and transparent ears ; large, prominent eyes ; head and snout like those of a rabbit, with white incisors ; short neck and legs ; four toes before, and three behind, unconnected by any membrane ; and a long, rather coarse fur. The colors are black and dirty yellow above and on the sides in distinct pencils, the former prevailing on the back and upper surface of the head, the general tint being a dark grayish brown ; the throat and abdomen a dirty yel- low. The characters in the subfamily have been given in the article CAVY. The distin- guishing characters from the subgenus cerodon are the larger size of the hind lobes of the mo- lars, these lobes in the upper teeth having an indenting fold of enamel on the outer side, and the corresponding half of the lower with its deep fold on the inner side. It is found from about lat. 35 S. through Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil, and perhaps as far N. as Guiana. Its food is entirely vegetable, and its time of feed- ing toward evening ; it prefers marshy places covered with aquatic plants ; it generally lives in societies of from 6 to 15 individuals, and its presence may often be detected by the beaten paths among the plants ; it breeds only once a year, and has one or two young at a birth. The