V0l 'lfl^ XI1 ] Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. 69 



are natural to the country are turkeys like ours, . . . . " The Indians 

 " go almost naked except a lap .... and on the shoulders a deer-skin 

 or a mantle, a fathom square, of woven Turkey feathers . . . ." In 

 1644, Johannes Megalopensis in "A Short Sketch of the Mohawk 

 Indians" says 1 "There are also many turkies as large as in Holland 

 but in some years less than in others. The year before (1641) I 

 came here there were so many turkies and deer that came to the 

 houses and hog pens to feed and were taken by the Indians with so 

 little trouble. In "The Representation of New Netherland, 1650" 

 by Adrian van der Donck we find 2 " The other birds found in this 

 country are turkies, the same as in the Netherlands, but they are 

 wild, and are plentiest and best in winter." and "others (Indians) 

 have coats made of ... . turkey's feathers." The same gentleman 

 in "A Description of the New Netherlands, Amsterdam 1656" 

 calls 3 " The most important fowl of the country, .... the wild turkey. 

 They resemble the tame turkeys of the Netherlands. Those birds 

 are common in the woods all over the country, and are found in 

 large flocks, from twenty to forty in a flock. They are large, heavy 

 fat and fine, weighing from twenty to thirty pounds each, and I 

 have heard of one that weighed thirty two pounds. When they 

 are well cleaned and roasted on a spit, then they are excellent, and 

 differ little in taste from the tame turkeys ; but the epicures prefer 

 the wild kind. They are best in the fall of the year, when the 

 Indians will usually sell a turkey for ten stivers, and with the 

 Christians the common price is a daelder each." 



In the "Voyages Of Peter Esprit Radisson" we find that when in 

 the Iroquois country (1653) he kills 4 "stagges and a great many 

 Tourquies." In 1670, Daniel Denton in "A Brief Description of 

 New York" says 5 "Wild Fowl there is great store of as Turkies 

 ....," and writes that the settler " besides the pleasure in Hunting, 

 .... may furnish his house with excellent fat Venison, Turkies . . 

 Montanus in his " Description of New Netherlands 1671 " finds 6 



i N. Y. Hist. Soc. Colls. N. S. Vol. IV, 1857, p. 150. 



2 Narratives of New Netherlands, pp. 297, 301. 



3 N. Y. H. S. Colls. N. S. 1841, Vol. I, p. 172. 



4 Prince Soc. Publ. 1885, Vol. 16, p. 66. 



s Bull. Hist. Soc. Pa. Vol. I, 1845-47, pp. 6, 15. 



e Doc. Hist. State New York. Vol. IV, 1851, pp. il8, 125. 



