CHAPTER XXII 



TURKEYS, PEAFOWLS, GUINEAS, PHEASANTS 



Of these four kinds of poultry, including all the gallinaceous 

 domestic birds other than fowls, only the turkey requires special 

 consideration in this connection. No standards for the others have 

 been formulated, though there are varieties in all, and in a general 

 way breeders mate for the preservation of variety characters. This 

 chapter describes turkeys in detail. Notes on the others are ap- 

 pended to it as the most appropriate place for their insertion. 



Turkeys. At the discovery of America the turkey, previously 

 unknown to Europeans, was found in Mexico and Peru, both in the 

 wild state and in domestication. The most authentic accounts place 

 its arrival in Spain, England, and France at about 1624. Before 

 the end of that century it was well distributed throughout Europe. 

 Wild turkeys are still found in mountainous and wooded territory 

 in the South and as far north as Pennsylvania. Modern European 

 stocks appear to have been derived mostly from early importations ; 

 American stocks usually come from wild stock brought into domesti- 

 cation. While records are scant, it seems quite plain that, from the 

 time of the settlement of the country, the stocks of turkeys in sec- 

 tions where wild turkeys were found have had frequent accessions of 

 wild blood, keeping them nearer the wild color and type ; and that 

 when the wild turkey disappeared from a locality, the domestic stock 

 usually became mongrelized, but occasionally was developed as a 

 variety with distinctive color and sometimes with modifications of 

 form. There are not, however, such variations of size and of super- 

 ficial shape characters in turkeys as are found in the races of domes- 

 tic fowls, or even in ducks and geese. Of differences which might be 

 made the basis of breed distinctions there are none ; color variations 

 are few, and no attempt has been made to manipulate color patterns 

 farther than by selection and improvement of the original. Racial 

 differences are of slight importance, and turkeys are commonly 

 considered as of one breed with a number of color varieties. 



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