THE TURKEY. 135 



islands and the Spanish Main, and were domesticated 

 in the houses of the Christian inhabitants. It must 

 be observed that he calls the whole of that part of 

 America "las Indias," (the Indies,) and also u las 

 Indias occidentales," (the West Indies,) a name still ap- 

 plied to certain islands; hence, probably, the term "coq 

 d'Inde," originally arose, a term, however, which, if it 

 did thus originate, seemed to have conveyed a general 

 idea of this species being the native of Asiatic India ; 

 and under this impression, that it was a bird known to 

 the Greeks and Romans, a bird, as the fable states, 

 into which the sisters of Meleagre were transformed, 

 while weeping for the loss of their brother, it obtained, 

 among the learned, the title of " Meleagris." 



Belon was one of the first who considered the turkey 

 to be the Meleagris of the ancients, and this is the 

 more extraordinary as he was a scholar of eminence, 

 and the passages in which the Meleagris is mentioned, 

 sufficiently prove that it could not have been a turkey. 

 Aldrovandi, Gresner, and others followed in the wake of 

 Belon. Linnaeus, though unfortunately he retains the 

 name "Meleagris," stamping the error thereby with 

 the weight of his authority, well knew -that the turkey 

 was a native of the New World, for he places its hab- 

 itat " in America Septentrionali ;" he was also per- 

 fectly aware that it was the parent stock of the 

 domesticated breed; for he gives brief, but excellent 

 directions for the care of the young, and expressly 

 mentions their favorite food " the young relish the 

 onion and the nettle, and must be taken heed of 

 against hunger and rain." It is generally known that 

 curd, the green part of onions chopped small, and 

 nettles, are among the kinds of food for turkey 

 chicks, whose very existence depends upon regular 

 feeding and protection from rain. 



The English name, " Turkey," it is somewhat diffi- 

 cult to account for, except on the supposition that it 

 was generally believed to come from that country ; 

 perhaps, however, it was given because the bird was 



