68 Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. [ Jan 



New York. 



Most of the notes come in the seventeenth century in the " Nar- 

 ratives of New Netherlands." They begin with John de Laet's 

 "The New World" in which (1625) he says that 1 "In winter 

 superior turkey cocks are taken ; they are very fat, and their flesh 

 is of the best quality." In 1628, a letter of Isaac de Rasieres to 

 Samuel Blommaert recounts how 2 " some (Indians have) a cover- 

 ing made of turkey feathers which they understand how to knit 

 together very oddly, with small strings." In a "Narrative of a 

 Journey into the Mohawk and Oneida Country, 1634-1635" the 

 travellers 3 " went out to shoot turkeys with the chief, but could not 

 get any. In the evening I bought a very fat one for two hands of 

 seewan. The chief cooked it for us and the grease he mixed with 

 our beans and maize." In the Vocabulary of the Moquas, "Scha- 

 wari wane" is "Turkeys." In 1633-1643, David Pietersz De 

 Vries finds the New Netherlands 4 " a beautiful place for hunting 

 deer, wild turkeys, ..." Again he writes, "I returned home and 

 on my way shot a wild turkey weighing over thirty pounds, and 

 brought it along with me." Of the Indians, he remarks that 

 "They .... wear coats of turkey's feathers, which they know how 

 to plait together." He discovers that "Land birds are also very 

 numerous, such as wild turkeys, which weigh from thirty to thirty- 

 six and forty pounds, and which fly wild, for they can fly one or two 

 thousand paces, and then fall down, tired from flying, when they 

 are taken by the savages with their hands, who also shoot them 

 with bows and arrows." The same author when at Wyngaert's 

 Kill 5 " Went out daily, while here, to shoot. Shot many wild 

 turkeys, weighing from thirty to thirty six pounds. Their great 

 size and very fine flavour are surprising." In the year 1639, 

 "They also had this year, great numbers of Turkeys." 



A "Journal of New Netherlands, 1647" gives 6 "The birds which 



i N. Y. Hist. Soc. Colls. Vol. I, 1841, p. 311. 



2 Narratives of New Netherlands, N. Y. 1909, pp. 106, 115. 



3 ibid., pp. 141, 142, 158. 



4 ibid., pp. 209, 215, 217, 221. 



s N Y. Hist. Soc. Colls. New Series. Vol. Ill, 1857, pp. 28, 37, 90. 

 « Narratives of New Netherlands, N. Y. 1909, p. 270. 



