Vol 'i9i6 XI1 ] Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. 71 



Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. 



The first note discovered comes in 1634, when Capt. Thomas 

 Yong, in his "Voyage to Virginia and Delaware Bay and R.," 

 records 1 " an infinite number of ... . turkeys," in the latter region. 

 Fourteen years later, 1648, in "A Description of the Province of 

 New Albion" Beauchamp Plantagenet describes 2 "The uplands 

 (as) covered many moneths with berries, roots chestnuts, walnuts, 

 Birch and Oak Mast to feed them, Hogges and Turkeys, 500 in a 

 flock,. ..." He repeats the same in several places and finds that 

 " Here the Soldier, and Gentlemen wanting employment, .... with 

 five hundred Turkeys in a flock got by nets, in stalling get five shil 

 a day at least." In 1680, Mahlon Stacy writing to his brother 

 Revell says 3 "We have. . . .of. .. .fowls, plenty, as. .. .turkies." 

 Three years later, "A Letter from William Penn" holds that 4 

 "Of the fowl of the land, there is the turkey, (Forty and fifty 

 pounds weight) which is very great." The same year, a letter 

 from Pennsylvania by Thomas Paskel mentions that 5 " There are 

 here very great quantities of birds. . . . Turkeys (Cocqs dTnde) 

 .... (I have bought) for two or three pounds of shot apiece." The 

 following year, 1684, "A Collection of Various Pieces concerning 

 Pennsylvania," has it that 6 " The woods are supplied with a quantity 

 of wild birds, as turkeys of an extraordinary size, . . . . " About the 

 same time, Pastorius writes 7 " There is, besides a great abundance 

 of wild geese,. . . .turkeys,. ..." "When he first came into the 

 country, an Indian promised for a certain price to bring him a wild 

 turkey, but instead of that he brought him a snake, and wanted to 

 persuade him that it was a real turkey." Towards the close of 

 this century, Gabriel Thomas mentions among the fowl of 8 " Sus- 



i Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls. Fourth Series, 1871. Vol. IX, p. 130. 



• Force, P. Vol. II, pp. 20, 27. 32, 34, 12. 



3 Raum, J. O. History of New Jersey. Phila., 1877, Vol. I, p. 109. 



4 Proud, Robert. The History of Pennsylvania, etc. Vol. I, 1797, p. 250.' 

 ' Penn. Mag. Hist, and Biog. Vol. VI, p. 326. 



• ibid., p. 313. 



i Memoirs Hist. Soc. Penn. Vol. IV, 1840, p. 91 (Part II) ; III, p. 117. 



» Thomas, Gabriel. An Historical and Geographic Account of Pensilvania; 

 and of West-New Jersey in America. London, 1698. New York, 1848, edit., pp. 

 13, 22. 



