120 THE TURKEY. 



adopts that name, from the resemblance he thought 

 they bore to the former ; but he adds, " The neck 

 is bare of feathers, but is covered with a skin which 

 they change after their phantasie into diverse co- 

 lours. They have a horn, as it were, on their front, 

 and hairs on the breast." Their increase after their 

 introduction must have been extremely rapid, or their 

 worth must not have been duly appreciated ; for in 

 1555 we find them rated at only four shillings each ; 

 and in 1573, they are recorded as the usual Christ- 

 mas fare of a farmer's table, and ill " neighbours to 

 peason and to hops." In France, they seem to have 

 been first noticed a few years later, for the first 

 Turkey that appeared at table was said to have been 

 served up at the wedding banquet of Charles IX. in 

 1570 ; but four years previous to this, twelve Tur- 

 keys were thought worthy of being presented to 

 that king. These are parts of the history of this 

 bird which are perhaps only curious to the anti- 

 quary or historian, and of little practical use. The 

 Turkey has now been domesticated in almost every 

 civilized part of the known world ; and it is pro- 

 bable that it will be sooner extirpated from the 

 greater part of its native wilds than from the poul- 

 try-yards of the opulent and luxurious. Bonaparte 

 observes, that it is now extremely rare, if, indeed, it 

 exists at all, in the northern and eastern parts of the 

 United States. In New England, it even appears 

 to have been already destroyed one hundred and fif- 

 ty years back. Again, he adds, " In Canada, and 



