The longevity of birds is various, and, unlike the case of men and quadrupeds, seems to bear little proportion to the age at which they acquire maturity. A few months, or even a few weeks, suffice to bring them to their perfection of stature, instincts, and powers. Domestic fowls live to the age of twenty years; geese, fifty; while swans exceed a century.
The order Rasores includes the numerous species of gallinaceous birds, and the term is applied to them from their habit of scratching in the ground in search of food. They are generally marked by a small head, stout legs, plumage fine, the males usually adorned with magnificent colors, and the tails often developed in a manner to render the appearance extremely elegant. The wings are usually short and weak, and the flight of the birds is neither powerful nor prolonged. The corla of this order are larger than in any other birds.
The species are found in almost all parts of the world, from the tropics to the frozen regions of the north; but the finest and most typical kinds are inhabitants of the temperate and warmer parts of Asia. They feed principally on seeds, fruit, and herbage, but also, to a considerable extent, on insects, worms, and other small animals. Their general habitation is on the ground, where they run with great celerity, but many of them roost on trees. They are mostly polygamous in their habits, the males being usually surrounded by a considerable troop of females; and to these, with a few exceptions, the whole business of incubation is generally left. The nest is always placed on the ground in some sheltered situation, and very little art is exhibited in its construction; indeed, an elaborate nest is the less necessary, as the young are able to run about and feed almost as soon as they have left the egg; and at night or on the approach of danger, they collect beneath the wings of their mother. Most of these species are esteemed for the table, and many of them are among the most celebrated of game birds.
The pheasant family, of this order, includes the most beautiful of the rasorial birds; indeed, some of them may, perhaps, be justly regarded as pre-eminent in this respect over all the rest of their class. In these, the bill is of moderate size and compressed, with the upper mandible arched to the tip, where it overhangs the lower one; the tarsi are of moderate length and thickness, usually armed with one or two spurs; the toes are moderate, and the hinder one short and elevated; the wings are rather short and rounded, and the tail more or less elongated and broad, but frequently wedge-shaped and pointed. The head is rarely feathered all over; the naked skin is sometimes confined to a space about the eye, but generally occupies a greater portion of the surface, occasionally covering the whole head, and even a part of the neck, and frequently forming combs and wattles of very remarkable forms. In some species, the crown is furnished with a crest of feathers.
The birds of this family are, for the most part, indigenous to the Asiatic continent and islands, from which, however, several species have been introduced into other parts of the globe. The Guinea Fowl of Africa, and the Turkeys of America, are almost the only instances of wild Phasianidous birds out of Asia. Some species, such as the Domestic Fowl, the Peacock, the Turkey, and the Guinea Fowl, have been reduced to a state of complete domestication, and are distributed pretty generally over the world.
THE GUINEA FOWL.
This bird belongs to the same division, class, order, and family as the Domestic Fowl; but is assigned by naturalists to the genus Numida, or Numidian. It is indigenous to the tropical parts of Africa, and in a wild state, Guinea Fowls live in flocks, in woods, preferring marshy places, and feed on insects, worms, and seeds; they roost on trees; the nest is made on the ground, and usually contains as many as twenty eggs. They have been propagated in the Island of Jamaica to such an extent as to have become wild, and are shot like other game. They do much damage to the crops, and are therefore destroyed by various means; one of which is, to get them tipsy by strewing corn steeped in rum, and mixed with the intoxicating juice of the cassava, upon the ground; the birds devour this, and are soon found in a helpless state of inebriety.
THE GUINEA FOWL.