■342 Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. [j^jy 



by several authors, such as B. Heresbach (1595), Colerus (1611) 

 and others, that turkeys were brought to Germany so early as 

 1530; and in the same year carried to Bohemia and Silesia. Re- 

 specting the northern countries, I know only, on the authority 

 of Pontoppidan (1765), that they had been in Denmark two hun- 

 dred years before his time. 



"As these fowls are found at present both in Asia and Africa, 

 it may be worth while to inquire at what period they were carried 

 thither, especially as these quarters of the world have been by 

 some considered as their native countries. In China there are no 

 other turkeys than those which have been introduced from other 

 parts, as we are expressly assured by Du Halde, though he errone- 

 ously adds that they were quite common in the East Indies. They 

 were carried to Persia by the Armenians and other trading people, 

 and to Batavia by the Dutch. In the time of Chardin they were 

 so scarce in Persia that they were kept in the Emperor's menagerie. 

 In the kingdom of Congo, on the Gold Coast, and at Senegal, 

 there are none but those belonging to the European factories." 



In addition to these accounts of its introduction into England 

 and on the European continent, it might be apropos to present 

 the very interesting hypothesis suggested by a naturalist of this 

 continent. Prof. Baird. In 1858, he advances the following:^ 



"In conclusion I venture to suggest the following hypothesis, 

 which, however, is not original with myself: That there are really 

 three species of turkey, besides the M. ocellata, a fourth species 

 from Central America, entirely different from the rest. That one 

 of them, M. americana, is, probably, peculiar to the eastern half of 

 North America; another, M. mcxicana, belongs to Mexico, and 

 extends along the table lands to the Rocky Mountains, the Gila, 

 and the Llano estacado, and a third is the M. gallopavo, or domesti- 

 cated bird. That it is not at all improbable that the last was 

 originally indigenous to some one or more of the West India 

 islands, whence it was transported as tamed to Mexico and other 

 parts of America, and from Mexico taken to Europe about A. D. 

 1520. Finally, that the wild turkeys were probably completely 

 exterminated by the natives, as has been the case with equally large 

 birds in other islands, as the dodo and solitaire. 



1 Baird, S. P. Rept. Pacific R. R. Routes, Vol. IX, 1858, Part II, pp. 613-618. 



