MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 349 



wild blood, as the case might be, and which differed in habits in some re- 

 spects from the common breeds. I have also been long conversant with 

 the fact that in the Western States, and in those other parts of the coun- 

 try where the turkey exists in its native state, that fhe eggs of the wild 

 bird are frequently taken and hatched under the domesticated turkey, the 

 young carefully raised and held at high prices, they being considered as 

 highly valuable for the purpose of improving the domestic breeds. In a 

 recent correspondence with Mr. D. Darwin Hughes, an able ornitholo- 

 gist of Marshall, Michigan, I alluded to the fact that the domestication 

 of the wild bird had been disputed, and requested him to give me any 

 facts he might possess in reference to the subject. The facts given in the 

 following extracts from his letters are fully co-roborated by other private 

 testimony in my possession. 



Under date of October 25, 1869, he wrote me respecting the domes- 

 tication of the wild bird as follows : " Here [Calhoun County, Michigan], 

 where the wild bird is abundant, they mix freely with the tame ones, and 

 it is a common thing to see large flocks of half-breeds ; I have owned them 

 myself. They are fond of roaming and are apt to stray ; not to the woods 

 exclusively, but also to other farms. I have known the pure wild bird, 

 hatched from wild eggs and raised in the poultry-yard, to remain for years 

 in the yard without being confined ; but this is not usual. One fine gob- 

 bler, as beautiful a bird as I ever saw, was hatched from a wild eg£ and 

 headed a flock of mixed turkeys in a barn-yard. He was tame, like the 

 others, but easily distinguished by his wild plumage ; at night the flock 

 roosted in the yard, but this bird could not brook so low a perch, and 

 when the flock went to roost he invariably took wing and perched on an 

 immense forest-tree one fourth of a mile away, where he spent the night ; 

 but in the morning he always returned to the barn-yard. Such instances 

 are not uncommon. The eggs are eagerly sought for for hatching, and in 

 this manner, as I have belbre said, there is a liberal sprinkling of wild 

 blood in domestic birds, where the wild birds are abundant. The eggs of 

 the wild bird are found every year, and although I have offered at the 

 rate of six to eight dollars per dozen for them, there is not one in my col- 

 lection of eggs, which numbers over two hundred species, so eager are the 

 finders of them to hatch them, the chicks selling for a large price." 



In another letter, dated November 5, 1869, Mr. Hughes wrote me 

 further concerning this subject, in which he remarks as follows : " I have 

 already said that the wild bird has been so domesticated as to reproduce 

 its kind in the poultry-yard, and inquiries made since my last letter show 

 that in the more northern counties of the State such cases are quite com- 

 mon. I cannot agree with what is said in the ninth volume of the Pacific 

 Railroad Reports (p. 617), that there is an appreciable difference in the 



