Vol. XXXIII 



1915 



Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. 6 1 



EARLY RECORDS OF THE WILD TURKEY. III. 



BY ALBERT HAZEN WRIGHT. 



The following notes are classified according to political divisions 

 and are arranged in chronological order. 



Canada. 



The Turkey was not a widely distributed bird in Canada and 

 most of the Jesuit records are outside its confines. In their first 

 note they speak of it in a mythical way. They recount how an 

 Indian chief of the Tobacco Nation supposedly holds thunder in 

 his hand. " This thunder is, by his account, a man like a Turkey- 

 cock." l In another way, it enters the repertorie of the medicine 

 men. One 2 "carried a Turkey's wing, with which he fanned them 

 gravely and at a distance, after having given them something to 

 drink." To his disciples or substitutes, "as a token — he left 

 them each a Turkey's wing, adding that henceforth their dreams 

 would prove true." About Lake Erie (1640), 3 "They have also 

 multitudes of wild turkeys, which go in flocks through the fields 

 and woods." One hundred years later (1749) in this same region 

 Bonnecamp says, 4 " It is at this lake that I saw for the first time the 

 wild turkeys. They differ in no way from our domestic turkeys." 



In the Niagara country, Hennepin, in 1698, 5 "saw great numbers 

 of — Wild Turkey-Cocks." Between Lakes Erie and Huron 

 "Turkey Cocks — are there also very common." And finally, in 

 his "Continuation of the New Discovery (p. 130)," he writes 

 "There are to be had — Turkies, which are of an extraordinary big- 

 ness." Following Hennepin, comes Baron LaHontan (1703) who 



1 Thwaites, R. G. The Jesuit Relations and Other Allied Documents. i610- 

 1791. Vol. X, Le Jeune's Relation, 1636, p. 195. 



2 ibid., Vol. XIII (1637), p. 241, 243. 



3 ibid., Vol. XXI (1640-1641), p. 197. 



4 ibid., Vol. LXIX (1710-1756), p. 161. 



6 Hennepin, L. A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America, etc. London, 

 1698, pp. 40, 63. 



