TURKEY 995 



point of interest in his account is that he speaks of the species 

 having been ah'eady taken from New Spain (Mexico) to the ishxnds 

 and to Castilla del Oro (Darien), where it bred in a domestic state 

 among the Christians. Much labour has been given by various 

 naturalists to ascertain the date of its introduction to Europe, to 

 which we can at present only make an approximate attempt ; ^ but 

 it is plain that evidence concurs to shew that the bird was established 

 in Europe by 1530 — a very short time to have elapsed since it 

 became known to the Spaniards, which could hardly have been 

 before 1518, when Mexico was discovered. The possibility that it 

 had been brought to England by Cabot or some of his successors 

 earlier in the century is not to be overlooked, and reasons may be 

 assigned for supposing that one of the breeds of English Turkeys 

 may have had a northern origin ; ^ but the often-quoted distich 

 first given in Baker's Chronicle (p. 298), asserting that Turkeys 

 came into England in the same year — and that year by reputation 

 1524 — as carps, pickerels and other commodities, is wholly 

 untrustworthy, for we know that both these fishes lived in this 

 country long before, if indeed they were not indigenous to it. The 

 earliest documentary evidence of its existence in England is a 

 ^'constitution" set forth by Cranmer in 1541, which Hearne first 

 printed (Leland's Collectanea, ed. 2, vi. p. 38). This names " Turkey- 

 cocke" as one of "the greater fowles" of which an ecclesiastic 

 was to have "but one in a dishe," and its association with the 

 Crane and Swan precludes the likelihood of any confusion with the 

 Guinea-Fowl. Moreover the comparatively low price of the two 

 Turkeys and four Turkey-chicks served at a feast of the serjeants- 

 at-law in 1555 (Dugdale, Origines, p. 135) points to their having 

 become by that time abundant, and indeed by 1573 Tusser bears 

 witness to the part they had already begun to play in " Christmas 

 husbandlie fare." In 1555 both sexes were characteristically 



' ^ The bibliography of the Turkey is so large that there is here no room to 

 name the various works that might be cited. Recent research has failed to add 

 anything of importance to what has been said on this point by Buffou {Ois. ii. 

 pp. 132-162), Pennant (Arct. Zool. pp. 291-300), — an admirable summary, — 

 and Broderip {Zool. Eecreat. pp. 120-137) — not that all their statements can 

 be wholly accepted. Barrington's essay {Miscellanies, pp. 127-151), to prove 

 that the bird was known before the discovery of America and was transported 

 thither, is an ingenious piece of special pleading which his friend Pennant did 

 him the real kindness of ignoring. 



^ In 1672 Josselin {New England's Rarities, p. 9) speaks of the settlers 

 bringing up "great store of the wild kind" of Turkeys, "which remain about 

 their houses as tame as ours in England." The bird was evidently plentiful 

 down to the very seaboard of Massachusetts, but it is not likely to have been 

 domesticated by the Indian tribes there, as, according to Hernandez, it seems 

 to have been by the Mexicans. It was probably easy to take alive, and, as we 

 know, capable of enduring the voyage to England. 



