350 Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. [j^y 



either of them. If the archer does not hit it in the head or in a 

 part that kills the said peafowl, though it be struck in a wing or 

 other part, it goes on the ground afoot and runs rapidly; and as 

 it is necessary that the archer have a good dog and quick, so that 

 the hunter should not lose his labor and the game. One of these 

 turkeys is valued a ducat, and sometimes a castellano or peso dc oro 

 (gold dollar), which is as much as it is to spend a real in Spain. 

 Other peafowls larger and of better savor and more beautiful are 

 found in New Spain (Mexico), of which many are carried to the 

 islands (West Indies) and to Castilla del Oro (Darien), and they 

 are bred domestically in the homes of the Christians; of these the 

 females are plain and the males beautiful, and very often make a 

 wheel {hacen de rueda), though they have not so great a tail nor so 

 beautiful as those of Spain; but in all other respects as to their 

 plumage they are very beautiful. They have the neck and head 

 covered with a carnosity without feathers, which often changes 

 to diverse colors, when it suits them, especially when they make 

 the wheel it becomes very red, and when they stop making the turn 

 sometimes yellow and other colors, and sometimes blackened, 

 changing color dark and white, many times ; and on its face above 

 the beak the pea-cock has a short teat (pezoncorto), which when 

 he makes the wheel is enlarged or grows more than a palm; and 

 from the centre of the breast springs and is worn a lock of coarse 

 hair as thick as a finger, and these hairs neither more or less than 

 those of the tail of a horse, very black, and more than a palm long. 

 The meat of these peafowls is very good, and incomparably better 

 and more tender than that of the peafowl of Spain." 



Another who has been frequently mentioned with Oviedo in the 

 earlier turkey accounts is Franciscus Hernandez (Fernandez), 

 whom Philip I sent to Mexico in 1570-1576. Only portions of his 

 16 folio work have appeared, and in 1651 (not between 1555- 

 1598, as Pennant supposed) there appeared the tract on birds. 

 Concerning Huexolotl (Turkey), he writes, "This is the Indian 

 Fowl, which some call the Gallipavo, and with which all are ac- 

 quainted; they are to be found in woods, are twice as large as the 

 domestic ones, more hardy, and more unsavory, but in other 

 respects similar to them. Sometimes they are slain with arrows, 

 and at other times with real warlike weapons. And then there are 



