An Old Acquaintance. 



241 



the period of the Spanish Conquest, and of its subsequent 

 introduction into Europe, either from New Spain, or from 

 the West India Islands, into which it had been previously 

 carried. 



Audubon, one of the early pioneers of American orni- 

 thology, supposed our common barnyard Turkey to have 

 originated in the wild bird so prevalent in the eastern half of 



MEXICAN WILD TURKEY. 

 Ancestor of the Domestic Bird. 



our great country. But it has always been a matter of sur- 

 prise to naturalists that the latter did not assimilate, by inter- 

 breeding and reversion, more intimately in color and habits 

 to the domestic form. No suspicion, until recently, appears 

 to have been entertained that the two birds might belong to 

 different species. That such is the true status of things, 

 there is now no reasonable doubt. 



