TURKEYS. 



203 



CHAPTER XII. 



TURKEYS. 



NEXT to the common fowl, the most useful, 

 beautiful, important, and interesting bird is the 

 Turkey ; it is a native of North America ; a no- 

 ble bird, far exceeding its domestic relative, 

 both in size and beauty ; and we can boast of 

 the Wild Turkey, a bird so truly valuable, that 

 Dr. Franklin observed, that "it would have 

 been a much fitter emblem of the country than 

 the Bald-headed Eagle, a lazy, cowardly, tyran- 

 nical bird, living on the labors of others, and 

 more suited to represent an imperial despotic 

 government than the Republic of America." 

 However true this may be, it is universally 

 admitted that the turkey is entitled to the 

 nobility of the barn-yard. Those who have 

 seen only the domesticated bird, can form but 

 a very faint idea of its beauty in a state of na- 

 ture. 



The turkey, with the exception of the domes- 

 tic fowl, is the most recent of our reclaimed 

 birds. That we can not fix the precise time, 

 nor learn any of the circumstances which re- 

 late to the introduction of the turkey into Eu- 

 rope, may cause some astonishment when we 

 reflect that it must have occurred at some period 

 after the conquest of America. Buffon says, it 

 "was unknown before the discovery of America, 

 and it has no name in the ancient language. 

 The Spaniards call it pavor de las Indias the 

 Peacock of the Indies, because its tail is like a 

 peacock." 



Oviedo, who resided as Governor of the fort 

 and harbor of St. Domingo, in the island of 

 Hayti, in 1514, published, among other works, 

 one entitled " Tradado de la Historia Natural 

 de las Indias" which was published at Toledo 

 in 1526. In this work he describes the turkey 

 as a kind of peacock abounding in New Spain, 



whence numbers had been transported to the 

 islands and the Spanish Main, and were domes- 

 ticated in the houses of the Christian inhabit- 

 ants. They were also called the India Cock and 

 Hen, as they were first taken from the West In- 

 dies to Europe. 



THE WILD TURKEY. 



This bird is strictly a native of North America, 

 having its range from the Isthmus of Darien on 

 the south, to the fifteenth degree north ; and east 

 and west, the Atlantic Ocean and Rocky Mount- 

 ains. No individual of the species has been 

 seen south of Panama, and it is utterly unknown 

 beyond Lake Superior. 



So greatly was the turkey esteemed in Eu- 

 rope shortly after its introduction, that in the 

 year 1566, a present of twelve turkeys was 

 thought not unworthy of being offered by the 

 municipality of Amiens to their King, at whose 

 marriage, in 1570, it is stated that they were 

 first eaten in France. Hercsback asserts that 

 they were introduced into Germany about 1530 : 

 and a sumptuary law, made at Venice in 1577, 

 particularizes the tables at which they were 

 permitted to be used. They were first in- 

 troduced from Spain into England as early as 

 1525, and were in a short time spread over the 

 whole kingdom, and increased to that degree, 

 that in 1555 they could already furnish a dish 

 in country feasts. They have since been do- 

 mesticated throughout the civilized world, in 

 every climate, although said not to succeed 

 equally on the barren sands of Africa. 



The plumage of the Wild Turkey is gener- 

 ally described as being compact, glossy, with 

 metallic reflections ; feathers double, as in oth- 

 er gallinaceous birds, generally oblong or trun- 



