The Bird of Yule. 179 



still taken for the Royal table, the turkey began to 

 supplant our native wildfowl, and rapidly acquired 

 almost a monopoly of popular favour. 



The actual time of its first importation is involved 

 in obscurity. Its very name shows how little was 

 known of its origin. 



Thus much is clear. The turkey was brought from 

 North America by Spanish explorers. From Spain — 

 then in constant communication with England — it 

 made its way into this country, and caught the popular 

 fancy like the fragrant weed railed on in the Royal 

 1 Counterblast.' 



A writer of the time of James I. remarks that ' those 

 outlandish birds called Ginny cocks and Turkey cocks ' 

 were not seen in England before 1530. Hakluyt, too, 

 writing near the end of the sixteenth century, speaks 

 of the turkey as having been known in this country for 

 fifty years. 



It is also clear that the epithet turkey was at first 

 applied indiscriminately to this bird and to the guinea- 

 fowl, which reached England about the same time by 

 way of Levantine ports. 



The confusion between the two birds is well illus- 

 trated by a passage in an old Spanish dictionary, where 

 gallipavo is defined as 'a turkey or guinea cock or 

 hen.' 



The tame turkey of America was probably a re- 

 importation from Europe. The original wild species, 

 which still inhabits the whole continent east of the 



