° 1915 J Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. 65 



Two years later, 1634, William Wood publishes in London his 

 "New Englands Prospect" in which appears this curious and 

 interesting statement. 1 "The Turky is a very large Bird, of a 

 blacke colour, yet white in flesh; much bigger than our English 

 Turky. He hath the use of his long legs so ready, that he can runne 

 as fast as a Dogge, and flye as well as a Goose : of these sometimes 

 there will be forty, three score, and a hundred in a flocke, some- 

 times more and sometimes lesse; their feeding is Acornes, Hawes, 

 and Berries, some of them get a haunt to frequent our English 

 corne; In winter when the Snow covers the ground they resort to 

 the Seashore to look for Shrimps, and such smal Fishes at low tides. 

 Such as love Turkie hunting, must follow it in winter after a new 

 falne Snow, when hee ma}' follow them by ther tracts; some have 

 killed ten or a dozen in halfe a day; if they can be found towards 

 an evening and watched where they peirch, if one come about ten 

 or eleaven of the clocke he may shoote as often as he will, they will 

 sit unless they be slenderly wounded. These Turkies remain all 

 the yeare long, the price of a good Turkie cocke is foure shillings; 

 and he is well worth it, for he may be in weight forty pound ; a Hen 

 two shillings." In 1643, Roger Williams in his "Key into the 

 Language of America" gives us two notes: The turkey is called 2 

 "neyhom." "They (Indians) lay nets on shore, and catch many 

 fowls upon the plains, and feeding under oaks upon acorns, as 

 geese, turkies. ..." The other statement refers to " Neyhommau- 

 shunck: a coat or mantle, curiously made of the fairest feathers of 

 their Neyhommauog, or turkies, which commonly their old men 

 make, and is with them as velvet with us." In " Good News from 

 New England. London 1648 " we find 3 " The Turkies .... and their 

 young ones tracing passe." In 1649, John Winthrop publishes his 

 " History of New England from 1630 to 1649," and on Oct. 31, 1632, 

 he speaks of a party who 4 " came, that evening, to Wessaguscus, 

 where they were bountifully entertained, as before with store of 

 turkeys . . . . " 

 I — 



» Prince Soc. Publ. Vol. I, 1865, p. 32. 



2 Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls. First Series. Vol. III. Reprint 1810, Boston, pp. 

 219, 225. 



3 Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls. 4th Series. Vol. I, p. 202. 



4 Winthrop, John. History of New England .... Edited by James Savage 

 2 vols., Boston, 1825. Vol. I, p. 93. 



