ILLUSTRATIONS. 8,1 



Untive observation of the changes which take place from age, from climate, 

 from season and food, and from the great difference which nature has establish- 

 ed between the aexes. It has, until lately, been doubted whether the bald 

 eagle and the sea eagle were the same j and the same difficulty has occurred 

 in relation to the whippoor-will and the night-hawk. This is now considered 

 ns settled. The latter are supposed to be distftct species, and the former are 

 the same birds under different appearances of plumage. 



An interesting discussion has been had upon this question, whether the turkey 

 i- exclusively of american origin P Thomas Pennant published, in the Transac- 

 tions of the Royal Society, a paper to show that the turkey came from Ameri- 

 ca, and was unknown before the discovery ef that continent. Daines Barring- 

 ton, who has taken the opposite side of the question, asserts that this fine bird 

 boasts an eastern origin. According to a distich in Baker's Chronicle, turkeys 

 were introduced into England from Spain. Latham, in his Synopsis of Birds, 

 says, that turkeys were brought into England about 1524, and that they un- 

 questionably came originally from America, and are found largest in the north- 

 ern parts. Bartram, in his travels through the Carolinas and Floridas, repre- 

 sents u our turkey as a very different species from the meleagris of Asia and 

 Europe ; they are nearly thrice their size and weight ; they are taller, and have 

 a much longer neck proportionately, and likewise longer legs and stand more 

 erect ; they are also very different in color, they are all of a dark brown color, 

 not having a black feather on them; but the male is exceedingly splendid with 

 changeable colors." Michaux, in la's Travels to the westward of the Alleghany 

 .Mountains, &c. says, " To the east of the Mississippi, in a space of more than 

 eight hundred leagues, there is only one species of wild turkey. Some weigh 

 thirty- five or forty pounds. The variety of domestic turkeys to which the name 

 of english turkeys is given in France, came originally from this species of wild 

 turkey, and when they are not crossed with the common species, they retain the 

 primitive colour of their plumage as well as that of their legs, which is a deep 

 red. If subsequent to 1525 our domestic turkeys were naturalized in Spain, and 

 from thence were introdued into the rest of Europe, it is probable that they 

 were originally from some of the more southern parts of America, where they 

 doubtless exist a species different from that of the United States." 



Notwithstanding the authoritative decisions of the two iait quoted writers, I 

 tiiink we may venture to dissent from them, and to say that the wild and tame 

 ;urkeys are only varieties of the same species. It is well known that they 

 'ireed together, and that their offspring are also productive. The only diffi- 

 . ulty, then, is respecting their size and plumage; all animals are changed by 

 flomestication. Their color, in a wild state, is generally uniform and similar, 

 '"lit when tamed, it changes into a number of varieties. The mallard is the 



