344 Weight, Earlij Records of the Wild Turkey. [f^^ 



tian Munster records that Petrus Alonsus in a voyage along the 

 Venezuelan coast (about 1498) from the Gulf of Paria westward/ 

 " In their woodes, .... saw innumerable Peacockes, nothing unlyke 

 oures, saving that the males differ litle from the females." Of 

 this same region (1516) Pietro Martire of Anghiera writes (in his 

 Second Decade) that the natives gave to Vincentius Annez and 

 his men" - a great multitude of theyr peacockes, both cockes and 

 hennes, deade and aly ve, as well to satisfie theyr present necessitie, 

 as also to cary with theym into Spayne for encrease." "In the 

 marysshes also and fennes of the Regions of Dariena, are founde 

 greate plentie of Pheasaunts and peacockes, (but not of variable 

 coloures) . . . . , in the rase of this large lande, Colonus (Columbus) 

 hymselfe brought and sent to the courte a greate number of every 

 kynde the which it was lawfull for all the people to beholde, and are 

 yet dayly browght in lyke maner." The Pedro de Cieza de Leon 

 note, often quoted from Pennant, in the original is : ^ " There are 

 many turkeys. . . .on the island" — not on the Isthmus of Darien, 

 but on the Island of Gorgona, southwest of Buena Ventura, Colom- 

 bia. In the "Narrative of the Proceedings of Pedrarias Davilla 

 etc. written by Adelantado Pascualde Andagoya" we find -that 

 in Coiba and Cueva (in S. A. below Darien) ^ " they have no other 

 game in these provinces excepting birds, of which there are 

 two kinds of turkeys . . . . " The translator, Sir. Clements R. 

 Markham (1865) remarks in a footnote that "Turkeys are native 

 of Mexico and do not come further south than Guatemala. The 

 bird alluded to by Andagoya is probably a Curassow." In 1590, 

 Father de Acosta publishes his " Natural and Moral History of the 

 Indies."^ He "wondered at hennes, seeing there were some at 

 the Indies before the Spaniards came there, the which is well 

 approved, for they have a proper name of the country, and they 

 call a henne Hualpa, and the eggeRonto, and they use the same 



1 Eden, Richard. The First Three English Books on America (1511?-1555) 

 Edited by Edward Arber. Birmingham, Eng., 1885, p. 36. 



s ibid., pp. 129, 132. 



s The Travels of Pedro de Cieza de Leon. A. D. 1532-1550. Translated by 

 C. R. Markham, London, 1864, p. 21. 



< Translated and edited by Clements R. Markham. London, Hakluyt Soc, 

 1865, pp. 17, 18. 



' Acosta, Father Joseph de. The Natural and Moral History of the Indies. 

 Seville, 1590. Reprinted from Eng. Translation of 1604, p. 276. 



