TURKEY 995 
point of interest in his account is that he speaks of the species 
having been already taken from New Spain (Mexico) to the islands 
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 toit. 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 
' 1 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 Buffon (O¢s. ii. 
pp. 132-162), Pennant (Arct. Zool. pp. 291-300),—an admirable summary,— 
and Broderip (Zool. Recreat. 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. 
2 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, 
