180 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



was led to conclude that one never could have been produced from the other. 

 I have mentioned this to many ornithologists, but no one would take the trouble 

 to investigate the matter. At length Mr. Gould, one of the best ornithologists 

 of Eurojje, in the 304th number of the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of 

 England, has made the discovery, that there have been two species confounded 

 together under the name of Meleagris gallopavo. He calls his species M. mexi- 

 cana having received it from Mexico. I cannot determine from his description, 

 whether it is different from ours, or is the original of the domestic bird. Mr. 

 Gould confines himself entirely to a description of its colors, a very imperfect 

 method of discriminating species. He mentions nothing of the existence or non- 

 existence of the palear, nor of the frontal caruncle so long and extensible in the 

 one, so short in the other. I am however inclined to believe, that his species 

 differs in no manner from our native species. He quotes Brisson as describing 

 his bird, {Brisson, Synopsis Methodica Avium, Vol. 1, p. 158,) and states that 

 Linnaeus's description of M. gallopavo is founded on Brisson's Gallopavo sylvestris 

 and Ray's New England Wild Turkey [Synopsis Aviicm ei Piscium, page 51, No. 3). 

 Brisfon describes and figures the domestic animal : to prove this more fully T 

 quote his words. He says " palea longa sub gutture pendula. Une membrane 

 charnue longitudinale pendante sous la gorge." 



He mentions afterwards among the Varieties, le Dindon sauvage or Gallopavo 

 sylvestris Novae Anglise of Ray. I omit any description of these two birds. 

 Sufficiently detailed accounts of them have already been published, and shall 

 merely observe that the Wild Turkey has been very minutely described by the 

 Prince of Canino in his American Ornithology. 



It may not be amiss to add here some observations on the introduction of the 

 Turkey into Europe. It appears that the earliest visitors to the tropical regions 

 of America observed the Turkey both wild and in a state of domestication. The 

 natives therefore had been able to tame them ; their transportation to foreign 

 countries was thus rendered easy. In about thirty years after the first landing 

 of Columbus in America they are mentioned as birds newly introduced into 

 Europe. The province of Yucatan is particularly mentioned as the place where 

 they were first observed, but I cannot find them mentioned as being cultivated 

 in Spain previous to the year 1520. This may in some measure be owing to the 

 want of Spanish publications of that early date, or at least of translations into 

 the English language of any that may have appeared. We copy the English in 

 thinking that the Spanish have no literature worth noticing : whereas three 

 centuries ago they were far beyond other European nations in literature as well 

 as in all the arts and sciences which adorn or benefit a state of civilization. If 

 we could obtain all that was written and published in those days relative to 

 this portion of the globe, much of the absurd and false relations of modern 

 historians would be treated with the neglect they well deserve. It is a remarka- 

 ble circumstance in the history of Europe, that the rera of the introduction of 

 many important articles of domestic use even in more modern times, is entirely 

 unknown. No one has ever thought it worth while to record the date of the 

 introduction of the Turkey, of Tobacco or of the Potato, into the other continent 

 from the foreign countries where they were first found. In the case of the latter 

 vegetable which has done so much good in the world, and has in fact altered 

 the dietetic habits of whole nations, no one has been able to discover whence it 

 came, or by whom it was first introduced to the notice of civilized men. I 

 scarcely notice the story of its having been brought by Sir Walter Raleigh from 

 North Carolina, as it could not grow naturally in that country, and he never sat 

 foot on the soil of North America. 



The peculiar habits of an animal which strongly resembles another, are fre- 

 quently suflicient when joined to even slight corporeal characters to distinguish 

 it from others. I have before observed that the Turkey was found domesticated 

 among the nations of Central America. Now the bird which we have native 

 among us never has been domesticated. All attempts to conquer its peculiar 



[September, 



