y the males in
several allied genera, such as Euplocomus, Lophophorus, and Pavo.

Wild turkeys, believed in every instance to have been imported from the
United States, have been kept in the parks of Lords Powis, Leicester, Hill,
and Derby. The Rev. W. D. Fox procured birds from the two first-named
parks, and he informs me that they certainly differed a little from each
other in the shape of their bodies and in the barred plumage on their
wings. These birds likewise differed from Lord Hill's stock. Some of the
latter kept at Oulton by Sir P. Egerton, though precluded from {294}
crossing with common turkeys, occasionally produced much paler-coloured
birds, and one that was almost white, but not an albino. These half-wild
turkeys in thus slightly differing from each other present an analogous
case with the wild cattle kept in the several British parks. We must
suppose that the differences have resulted from the prevention of free
intercrossing between birds ranging over a wide area, and from the changed
conditions to which they have been exposed in England. In India the climate
has apparently wrought a still greater change in the turkey, for it is
described by Mr. Blyth[477] as being much degenerated in size, "utterly
incapable of rising on the wing," of a black colour, and "with the long
pendulous appendages over the beak enormously developed."

THE GUINEA FOWL.

The domesticated guinea-fowl is now believed by naturalists to be descended
from the _Numida ptilorhynca_, which inhabits very hot, and, in parts,
extremely arid districts in Eastern Africa; consequently it has been
exposed in this country to extremely different conditions of life.
Nevertheless it has hardly varied at all, except in the plumage being
either paler or darker-coloured. It is a singular fact that this bird
varies more in colour in the West Indies and on the Spanish Main, under a
hot though humid climate, than in Europe.[478] The guinea-fowl has become
thoroughly feral in Jamaica and in St. Domingo,[479] and has diminished in
size; the legs are black, whereas the legs of the aboriginal African bird
are said to be grey. This small change is worth notice on account of the
often-repeated statement that all feral animals invariably revert in every
character to their original type.

{295}

THE CANARY BIRD.

As this bird has been recently domesticated, namely, within the last 350
years, its variability deserves notice. It has been crossed with nine o