10 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 



The early history of this bird is interesting to those 

 who care to note what great vitality a fallacy has, and 

 how easy it is to err unwittingly. Thus, Belon and Ges- 

 ner assumed that the turkey was the Meleagns of the 

 ancients, whereas the bird known by that name was the 

 Guinea fowl {Numidm Meleagris), which was quite com- 

 mon in Turkey, Egypt, and other Oriental countries. 



Linnaeus, keen observer and naturalist as he was, 

 adopted the technical nomenclature of a preceding nat- 

 uralist, and gave the turkey the name by which it is 

 known to science, namely, Meleagris gallopavo, although 

 he knew very well whence it came, and mentions the fact 

 in his work, tor he places the habitat of the Gallopavo 

 sylvestris of Kay in New England. 



Brisson was the first person to disentangle the history 

 of the turkey and the Guinea fowl, for he gave an elab- 

 orate description, many synonyms, and a figure of 

 each, and thus proved that the Meleagns mentioned by 

 Aristotle, Athanaeus, Pliny, and other authors could 

 not be the gobbling native of the New World. 



The source from which the turkey came to Europe was 

 also a matter of dispute for some years. All the early 

 ornithologists, such as Kay, Willughby, Gesner, Belon, 

 Barrington, and Aldrovandi thought it had been im- 

 ported from Asia, and their statements were accepted as 

 facts until Buffon gave a lucid history of its migrations. 



Its English name is derived from the idea that it orig- 

 inally came from the Turkish dominions, so that it has 

 been one of the most misunderstood members of the 

 feathered creation, so far as its name and origin are con- 

 cerned. The supposition that it came from Turkey was 

 probably based on the fact that Guinea fowls were im- 

 ported into England from the Levant in the sixteenth 

 century, and the turkey having found its way into the 

 country about the same time, the general public assumed 

 that both came from the same place. 



