^'"'imf'^^l Weight, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. 351 



the females, called in the above language Cihuatotolin, which are 

 smaller than the males: and although most acceptable and whole- 

 some food, they are nevertheless it would seem to our countrymen, 

 too moist, excessively oily, and nauseous to some delicate palates." ' 

 In 1811, Alex. De Humboldt speaks of these last two authors and 

 adds some interesting notes regarding the early history of the 

 turkey of Mexico and the domestic one of Europe. He writes as 

 follows: 2 "From Mexico, the Spaniards carried them into Peru, 

 to Darien, and into the Antilles, where Oviedo described them in 

 1515. Hernandez has already very well observed that the wild 

 turkey from Mexico are very much larger than the domestic tur- 

 kies. At present, one only meets the wild ones in the northern 

 provinces. They betake themselves to the north, as the popula- 

 tion increases and as a necessary consequence when the forests 

 become more rare. . . . When the English in 1584, arrived in 

 Virginia, the turkeys already had existed fifty years in Spain, 

 Italy, and England. This is not the first time this bird passed 

 from the United States into Europe, as many naturalists have 

 erroneously stated." 



Early Comparisons of the Feral and Domestic Forms. 



Early chroniclers, as we of the present, instinctively compare 

 the wild form with the smaller domestic variety of the poultry 

 yard; and the literature of North American travel is replete with 

 such descriptions, some of which appear herewith because of their 

 intrinsic interest and because of the sidelights they may throw on 

 domestication and introduction into Europe. 



In the French domains of North America, the Jesuits frequently 

 note them. Allouez at Lake Poygan, Wisconsin (1669-70) says,^ 

 "there we saw two Turkeys perched on a tree, male and female, 

 resembling perfectly those of France — the same size, the same 



1 Hernandez. Francisco. Nova plantarum, animalium et mineraUum Mexica- 

 norumhistoria— Romae 1651. Tractus Secundus. Cap. LIX p. 2/. 



2 Humboldt, Al. De. Essai Politique Sur Le Royaume De La Nouvelle-Es- 

 Dagne. 5 vols. Paris, Tome Troisieme, Livre IV, Chap. X, pp. 233. 234. 



3 Thwaites. R. G. The Jesuit Relations and Other Allied Documents. 1610- 

 1791. Cleveland. 1896. Vol. LIV. p. 219. 



