THE WILD TURKEY. 11 



Barnaby Googe, a writer on husbandry, says, in 1614, 

 that ''those outlandish birds called ginny cocks and 

 turkey cocks," were not known in England previous to 

 the year 1530, but he, evidently, derived his statement 

 from the German author Heresbach, who was one of the 

 prominent writers on the history and habits of the bird. 



The earliest European mention of the turkey was 

 made by Oviedo in his summary of the history of the 

 West Indies, which was written in 3525, for the Em- 

 peror Charles V, of Spain. In his time the domestic 

 bird was very common in the West Indies, as well as 

 on the mainland, it having been introduced into the 

 islands by the Spaniards, who found it abundant in 

 Mexico, when that country was discovered by Grijalvo, 

 in 1518. Daines Barrington, in his essay "Whether the 

 turkey was known before the discovery of America," as- 

 sumed that it was not known in Mexico, but acknowledged 

 tbat it was a resident of Virginia when that region was first 

 explored by the whites. In contradistinction to his 

 statement, however, we learn that Montezuma had one 

 of the finest zoological gardens in the world, long before 

 the Spaniards visited his country, and that the wild beasts 

 were fed daily with turkeys — a proof that they must have 

 been very abundant. 



Oviedo calls those found in the West Indies, peacocks; 

 but that they were not peacocks is evident from a part 

 of his description of them which is given in Purchas's 

 "Pilgrims," for this author says: "The neck is bare of 

 feathers, but covered with a skin, which they change 

 after their phantasie into divers colors. They have a 

 horn, as it were, in front, and haires on their breast." 



Eene de Laudonniere, the protege of Admiral Coligny, 

 found them numerous in South Carolina, in 1564, but 

 the domestic species had found their way into Spain sev- 

 eral years before that time. They are supposed to have 

 reached England between the years 1534 and 1541, for, 



