336 Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. [f^i^ 



Several times the wild turkey enters the vernacular of this 

 country. Who in his boyhood has not upon certain occasions 

 had "to walk turkey?" Lieut. Abert gives another saying and 

 its origin as he understands it.^ " It is related that a white man 

 and an Indian went hunting; and afterwards when they came to 

 divide the spoils, the white man said, 'you may take the buzzard 

 and I will take the turkey, or I will take the turkey and you may 

 take the buzzard.' The Indian replied, 'you never once said 

 turkey to me.'" 



The chief claim of the turkey with the lay mind of the country 

 is its place in the festivals of our United States. Both at Thanks- 

 giving and at Christmas, it holds first place. In 1621, after the 

 first harvest was gathered and it had proved a good yield, the early 

 Pilgrims instituted a three day festival, the well known forerunner 

 of our present Thanksgiving day. At this first feast,- " above all, 

 they had the turkey, of which they found a 'great store' in the 

 forest, .... the turkey, thus early crowned cjueen of their bounty, 

 and to which example their descendants, even though they may 

 have failed to imitate them in other respects, have always been 

 loyal." In fact,^ "roast turkey, is the great event of the day. 

 As roast beef and plum pudding are upon Christmas day in Old 

 England, so is turkey upon Thanksgiving-day among the descend- 

 ants of the puritans in New England." 



Thus, we see how essential the wild turkey was to the explorer, 

 how prominent a part of the larder it proved for the early pioneers 

 and Indians, what sport it furnished our natives, settlers and 

 foreign sportsmen, and how early it was singled out as our token of 

 festival joy. Yet, why did we as a nation choose for a national 

 emblem, a bird not necessarily indigenous and one which previously 

 had and since has served as an insignium for other countries? 



Several travellers (like Vigne, 1832, p. 213, Phillippo, 1859, p. 

 171) agree that Benjamin Franklin is right when he lodges his 

 objection to the eagle and prefers the turkey as our national 



1 Abert, Lieut. J. W. Notes of. Appendix No. 6 Ex. Doc. No. 41. Emory's 

 Reconnoissance, etc. New York, 184S, pp. 501, 502. 



2 Love, W. D. Tlie Fast and Thanlisgiving Days of New England. Boston, 

 and New York, 1895, p. 74. 



3 Mackay, Clias. Life and Liberty in America. New York, 1859, p. 65. 



