ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 237 



between the arctic circle and the tropics. He is a truly cosmo- 

 politan bird,, and it is not strange that many varieties and sub- 

 species should have developed as the result of his widespread 

 range and varied environment. Domestication of the duck is easy 

 and has undoubtedly been accomplished many times. More than 

 one hen has hatched a brood of wild duck's eggs, after which a 

 timely clipping of the wings insured a flock of tame ducks. 

 * The turkey. Here at last we come to a truly American bird, 

 more fitting by far than the eagle to stand as the emblem 

 of America. 



When our Puritan ancestors landed on the forbidding shores 

 of New England, they found the woods alive with a strange 

 wild bird, wary and fleet both of foot and wing, but most ex- 

 cellent eating and easily tamed. 



This native of the New World not only helped out in the 

 "terrible winters," when food was scarce with the colonists, but 

 he remained in domestication to grace the tables of comfort, 

 and to-day the Thanksgiving turkey is everywhere the symbol 

 of plenty. 



Of the four contributions of the New World to domesticated 

 species, namely corn, tobacco, the potato, and the turkey, the 

 latter is the only animal, and he clearly outranks any other food 

 bird that has ever been domesticated. Of this contribution to our 

 civilization America may well be proud, especially as no similar 

 species has ever been discovered elsewhere on earth, save only 

 the related brush turkey of Australia and the outlying islands. 



The American turkey exists wild in no less than three distinct 

 species : Meleagris americana, the parent of the black turkey 

 of the eastern United States ; Meleagris gallopavo, of northern 

 Mexico, parent of the bronze strains ; and the beautiful Melea- 

 gris ocellata of Guatemala, Yucatan, and British Honduras, 

 described as radiant, with its " gf eenish-blue eyespot shot with 

 purple, while the metallic parts of the body feathers are golden 

 or bronze green and the naked head and neck blue, covered 

 with red warts." 



