THE WILD T U R K E Y, 137 



were regarded as fancy fowls alone. Most probably their intro- 

 duction was through the medium of some of the British cruisers 

 from the coast of Spain, where, no doubt, many of the birds had 

 already been brought from the newly-acquired Spanish possessions 

 in the New World, and dubbed Turkey, or Turkey-Bird, in a 

 spirit, perhaps, of irony or contempt for its irascible and pugna- 

 cious disposition, as evinced in its blustering attitudes, unmeaning 

 struttings, and senseless gobblings. And this title seemed the still 

 more appropriate for the pompous stranger, owing to the 'pectoral 

 appendage resembling so much the huge tufts of beard which the 

 Turks were so remarkable for cultivating. 



The singular misnomer of this fowl seems conclusive evidence 

 that the bird was not brought to England direct from America ; 

 and, whether there be any truth or not in the above conjecture, 

 there is certainly much plausibility in the deductions. However, 

 let all this be as it may, it is a well-known fact that, about the 

 period of its introduction into England, during the reign of that 

 monster Henry VIII., the British merchants carried on a consider- 

 able traffic throughout the Mediterranean, and even extended their 

 voyages as far as Smyrna on the one side and Constantinople on 

 the other; and it is not improbable that their vessels, on their 

 return voyages, stopping for trading purposes at the different 

 Spanish ports, may have brought home, as mere fancy fowls, some 

 of these birds lately arrived from the Western World. 



And thus alone, from the mere circumstance of arriving in Eng- 

 land through the medium of these same Turkish traders, ignorant, 

 perhaps, themselves of the true history of the fowl, it was very 

 naturally presumed by the uninitiated to have been brought from 

 the most remote region that the vessels visited, which was Constan- 

 tinople, and consequently received the cognomen of Turkey or 

 Turkey-Bird, without any particular allusion to the peculiar condi- 

 tion of the Turks at this period. 



With the exception of the hen and goose, the turkey is by far 

 the most valuable addition which has been made to our domestic 

 fowls; and it is somewhat strange that the history of its trans- 



