ORIGIN AND VARIETIES OF FARM BIRDS. 



10S7 



V. The Wild Turkey. 

 The wild turkey is a native only of America ; there are several so- 

 called species, but they are, however, only varieties that have bred con- 

 stant lo type, perhaps having escaped from some ancient domestication. 

 They are all fertile one with another. The turkey is native to all that 

 region from Central America, north, up to 45 degrees, wherever suitable 

 timber covert can be found ; but in all the more thickly settled regions 

 they have long since been exterminated. The illustrations show the 

 common wild turkey hen, and the Mexican wild turkey cock. 



GALLUS SONNERATIl. 



VI. Ducks. 

 None of the wild fowl seem to have been more eaViVy domesticated 

 than the duck, though the domestication of birds of any species seems 

 easy, whenever they prove valuable enough to pay their keepmg. Only 

 the hirger varieties have, as a rule, been thought worth domestication, 

 though^of late years some of the smaller and beautifully plumaged birds 

 have^been bred in a tame state. They make very handsome adjuncts to 

 water scenery, in connection with swans and t.he rarer species of geese. 



