366 THE TURKEY. 



by the noble efforts which the Earl of Derby is unceasingly 

 making to further the advance of zoological knowledge. 



One reason why the Turkeys, seen in our Poultry yards, do 

 not vie in splendour of plumage with their untamed brethren, 

 is that we do not let them live long enough. For the same 

 cause we seldom witness the thorough development of their 

 temper and disposition. A creature that does not attain its 

 full growth till its fifth or sixth year, we kill at latest in the 

 second, to the evident deterioration of our stock. But let 

 three or four well-selected Cambridge Turkeys, or the before- 

 mentioned Americans, be retained to their really adult state, 

 and well fed meanwhile, and they will quite recompense their 

 keeper by their beauty in full plumage, by their glancing hues 

 of gilded green and purple, their lovely shades of brown, 

 bronze, and black, and the pearly lustre that radiates from 

 their polished feathers. In default of wild specimens, birds 

 like these are sought to complete collections of stuffed birds. 



The demand for such large birds among the Fowl-dealers, 

 and the temptation to fat them before they arrive at this 

 stage, are so great, that few farmers' wives can resist sending 

 their eighteen or twenty pound "stag"* to market, while a 

 young Cock of the year, they think, will answer every purpose 

 next spring as well. Some even deem it an extravagance to 

 keep a Turkey Cock at all, if they have not more than two 

 Hens, which they would send on a visit of a day or two to a 

 neighbour who has a male bird. A case is recorded in which 

 such a visit, made in the July or August of one year, was 

 available for the Eggs of the succeeding April. The time 



* In Norfolk, Turkey Cocks are called Stags from their second 

 year upwards. A bird of the same year weighing, when dressed at 

 Christmas, 16 or 17 Ibs., is unusyyal and considered very good. The 

 extra weighty birds shown by the London poulterers are of a corre- 

 sponding age. 



