86 MOTES AN1S 



stock from whence our domestic duck proceeds, and the gray lag is the origin of 

 the domestic goose. The color of these birds, in their reclaimed condition, 10 

 various ; in their wild state it is uniform. The turkey when domesticated is 

 exposed to the same mutations. As to comparative size, it may be observed, 

 that the largest wild turkey does not exceed the largest tame turkey one half 

 in weight ; and this may also proceed from domestication. If the bison is the 

 original stock of our tame cattle, has not the latter diminished in magnitude by 

 the change! 1 but this diversity may, perhaps, be satisfactorily accounted for in 

 another way. The turkey was introduced into Europe from Spain, and Spain 

 derived it from her tropical colonies. It is a bird which flourishes best in tem- 

 perate climates j as R extended its migrations too far to the south, it diminished 

 in she : ri^hoHgh the identity of ppecies could not be changed, yet a variety 

 tras produced of inferior magnitude. From the Spanish turkey, which was 

 ilrusr spread over Europe, we have obtained our domestic one. The wild turkey 

 Iras been frequently tamed, and his offspring is of a larger size. 



Considerable doubts have also been suggested with respect to that interesting 

 Krd railed the rice bird, reed bird, or bob lincoln, (emberiza oryzivora). I 

 call it interesting on account of the beauty of its plumage, the melody of its 

 notes, and the delicacy of its flesh, which induced Brisson to call it 1'ortolan de 

 fa Caroline. Its migrations liave been represented as composed of each sex 

 distinctly. Catesby first suggested this idea. u In September," sajs he, 

 "* when the rice birds arrive in Carolina, in infinite swarms, to devour the rice, 

 iirey arc all hens, not being accompanied with any cock. Observing them to be 

 sll feathered alike, I imagined they were young of both sexes not perfected in 

 tfretr colors ; but by opening some scores prepared for the ?pit, I found them to 

 Ve all females : and that I might leave no room for doubt, repeated the search 

 often 'on many of them, but could never find a cock at that time of the year. 

 Early in the spring both cocks and hens make a transient visit together, at 

 which time I made the like search as before, and both sexes were plainly distin- 

 guishable. In September, 1725, lying upon the deck of a sloop in a bay at An- 

 *fros T island, I, snd the company with me, heard three nights successively flights 

 f these bird?, (their note being plainly distinguishable from others,) passing over 

 car heads northerly, which is their direct way from Cuba to Carolina; from 

 ^hich ! conceive, after partaking of the earlier crop of rice at Cuba, they travel 

 >ver sea to Carolina for the same intent, the rice there being at that time fit 

 for them.'* Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Ba/iama Islands, 

 irt. 1. 



Bartram seems to have adopted the same opinion, but with some hesitation, 

 1 - It is (says foe) the commonly received opinion, that they are male and female 

 of the same species, i. e. the black-pied rice birds ftie male, and a yellowish 



