CHRISTMAS FARE 359 



family, and is compared by old writers to the peacock, 

 and also to the guinea-fowl (Numida meleagris of orni- 

 thologists). Indeed, there was great confusion when the 

 turkey first arrived between it and the guinea-fowl, and 

 it appears to be owing to this mixing up of the two birds 

 that the American bird was called a turkey-cock, since 

 the guinea-fowl is an African bird, and came into the 

 hands of Europeans through Mussulman traders or 

 " Turks." So far did the confusion go that the great Lin- 

 naeus applied the Latin name Meleagris, which was that 

 of the guinea-fowl, to the " turkey " of America ! Some 

 people think that the turkey-cock established his mis- 

 leading name by his cry, which they say is represented 

 by the words " Turk-turk-turk." Probably the turkey- 

 cock, though an American bird, was imported by traders 

 who were called " Turkey merchants " because their 

 chief business was with the Levantine and Morocco ports. 

 Another mistake or vagueness as to the native home of 

 the turkey was hit upon by the French, who called 

 it the Poule d'Inde, whence their modern name for it, 

 Dindon; and the same error is found in an old 

 German name for it, Kalkuttisch Hiln (from Calicut, 

 on the Malabar coast of India, where the turkey was 

 introduced from America in the seventeenth century, and 

 has flourished ever since). The Swedish name for the 

 turkey is Kalcon, and is only a modification of this 

 old German name. Probably few animals or birds have 

 been so persistently misrepresented by the names given 

 to them as the American bird which we call the turkey. 



Our farmyard names for him are far better. In Scot- 

 land they call him the " Bubbly-jock," which vividly 

 suggests his airs and graces, whilst in Suffolk we call 

 him a " Gobble-cock." I know an old farmhouse near 

 Woodbridge, in Suffolk, which bears the delightful name 

 of "Gobblecock Hall." "The squire of Gobblecock 



