^°'i9i?'^^] Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. 355 



In connection with Heckewelder's journey to Wabash in 1792, 

 his translator makes this note:^ "Our tame European turkeys are 

 descended from this wild species, which in the latter part of the 

 16th century had become known in Germany. They are found 

 in large numbers in less inhabited regions, west of the middle free 

 states. Schopf saw them during his journey in great numbers 

 running about in the woods, hiding in the brushes or setting on 

 the limbs of trees. They distinguished themselves from the tame 

 ones, by their uniformity of colors, being black, brown and muddy 

 white spotted, they weigh 28-30 lbs." Parkinson, who travels in 

 America in 1798-1800, in discussing the "Fowls of America" 

 says,^ "There are great numbers of turkeys reared; and very fine 

 they are. There are likewise wild turkeys, which are something 

 larger than the tame ones, but so like them, that I should be 

 unable to distinguish the one from the other. They are black or 

 rather brown, called copper colour." At the same time Michaux 

 well known to American naturalists writes the followang: ^ "To 

 the east of the Mississippi, in a space more than eight hundred 

 leagues, this is the only species of wild turkey which is met with. 

 They are larger than those reared in our poultry-yards. In autumn 

 and in winter they feed chiefly on chestnuts and acorns ; and some 

 of those killed at this season weigh thirty-five or forty pounds. 

 The variety of domestic turkies, to which the name of English 

 turkies is given, in France, came originally from this species of wild 

 turkej^; and when they are not crossed with the common species, 

 they retain the primitive colour of their plumage, as well as that of 

 their legs, which is a deep red. If, subsequent to 1525y our domestic 

 Turkies were naturalized in Spain, and from thence introduced into 

 the rest of Europe it is probable that they were originally from 

 some of the more southern parts of America where there doubtless 

 exists a species different from that of the United States." 



In 1806, Priscilla Wakefield's "Excursions in America" appears. 

 When at Sunbury below Savannah, the traveller comments on 



1 Perm. Mag. Hist, and Biog. Vol. XII, p. 166. 



s Parkinson, Richard. A Tour in America in 1798, 1799 and ISOO. London, 

 1805, Vol. I, pp. 299, 115. 



3 MichaiLx, F. A. Travels to the "Westward of the Alleghany Mountains, in the 

 States of Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, etc. undertaken in 1802 .... Transl. 

 by B. Lambert. London, 1805, pp. 217, 218. 



