Vol. xxxn 



1914 



] Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. 339 



relied on by every subsequent writer down to Willoughby. He 

 speaks of it as abird that he has seen; and he had not then been 

 further from his native country than Venice ; and states it to have 

 been brought from the New World. 



"That turkeys were known in France at this period is further 

 proved by a passage in Champier's Treatise de Re Cibaria, pub- 

 lished in 1560, and said to have been written thirty yea'rs before. 

 This author also speaks of them as having been brought but a few 

 years back from the newly discovered Indian islands. From this 

 time forward their origin seems to have been entirely forgotten, and 

 for the next two centuries we meet with little else in the writings of 

 ornithologists concerning them, than an accumulation of citations 

 from the ancients, which bear no manner of relation to them. In 

 the year 1566 a present of twelve Turkeys was thought not un- 

 worthy of being offered by the municipality of Amiens to their 

 king; at whose marriage, in 1570, Anderson states in his History 

 of Commerce, but we know not on what authority, they were first 

 eaten in France. Heresbach, as we have seen, asserts that they 

 were introduced into Germany about 1530; and that a sumptuary 

 law made at Venice in 1557, quoted by Zanoni, particularizes the 

 tables at which thej^ were permitted to be served. 



"So ungrateful are mankind for the most important benefits, 

 that not even a traditionary vestige remains of the men by whom, 

 or the country from whence, this most useful bird was introduced 

 into any European states. Little therefore is gained from its 

 early history beyond the mere proof of the rapidity with which the 

 process of domestication may sometimes be effected." 



In many respects, Prof. John Beckmann ^ of Univ. of Gottingen, 

 has given us one of the most exhaustive and best accounts of its 

 introduction into Europe. He presents much of what is written 

 in the two foregoing quotations and we select only such as supple- 

 ment these. 



"These testimonies (concerning their early discovery in America), 

 in my opinion, are sufficiently strong and numerous to convince any 

 naturalist that America is the native country of these fowls; but 



> Beckmann, John. A History of Inventions and Discoveries. Transl. from 

 German by Wm. Johnston. 2nd edit, corrected and enlarged. 4 vols. London. 

 Vol. II, 1814, pp. 350-372. 



