128 lewis' AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



where, no doubt, many of the Birds had already been brought 

 from the newly-acquired Spanish possessions in the New World, 

 was dubbed Turkey^ or Turkey- Bird^ in a spirit, perhaps, of irony 

 or contempt for its irascible and pugnacious disposition, as 

 evinced in its blustering attitudes, unmeaning struttings, and 

 senseless gobblings. And this title seemed the still more 

 appropriate for the pompous stranger, owing to the pectoral 

 appendage, resembling so much the huge tufts of beard that the 

 Turks were so remarkable for cultivating. 



The singular misnomer of this Fowl seems conclusive evi- 

 dence that the Bird was not brought to England direct from 

 America ; and whether there be any truth or not in the above 

 conjecture, there is certainly much plausibility in the deduction?. 

 However, let all this be as it may, it is a well-known fact that, 

 about the period of its introduction into England, during the 

 reign of that monster Henry VIII., the British merchants carried 

 on a considerable trafiic throughout the Mediterranean, and even 

 extended their voyages as far as Smyrna on the one side, and 

 Constantinople on the other. And it is not improbable that 

 their vessels, on their return voyages, stopping for trading pur- 

 poses at the different Spanish ports, may have brought home as 

 mere fancy Fowls, some of these Birds lately arrived from the 

 Western World. 



And thus alone, from the mere circumstance of arriving in 

 England through the medium of these same Turkish traders, 

 ignorant, perhaps, themselves of the true history of the Fowl, 

 or too careless and indifferent to name it even if they had learned 

 it was very naturally, by the uninitiated, presumed to have been 

 brought from the most remote regions that the vessels visited, 

 which was Constantinople, and consequently received the cog- 

 nomen of Turkey or Turkey-Bird, without any particular allu- 

 sion to the peculiar condition of the Turks at this period. 



With the exception of the Hen and Goose, the Turkey is by 

 far the most valuable addition that has been made to our do- 

 mestic Fowls, and it is somewhat strange that the history of its 

 transplantation across the waters should have become involved 

 in so much obscurity, that more than one eminent author has 

 striven to establish an Asiatic or African origin for it. 



But such efforts at imposition could not long stand before the 



