CHAPTER XII. 



TURKEYS AND GUINEA-FOWLS. 



Plow up your dogs and plant turkeys. Joaquin Miller. 



This noble bird, next to the chicken 

 in importance among the denizens of the 

 poultry yard, is a native of North America, 

 and is found in a wild state from Mexico 

 to Canada east of the Rocky Mountains. 

 It is supposed that the wild turkey of 

 Mexico is tlio parent stock from which 

 our domesticated bird is derived. 



Years ago the farm-yard flock was a somewhat 

 variegated lot, but by skilful mating modern breeders 

 have fixed certain characteristics of color and size so 

 that we now have six quite distinct varieties, recog 

 nized and described in the " Standard of Perfection." 

 The names of these, with the standard weight of adult 

 birds, male and female, are the Bronze, thirty-six and 

 twenty pounds ; Narragansett, thirty and eighteen 

 pounds ; Buff, twenty-seven and eighteen pounds ; 

 Slate, twenty-seven and eighteen pounds ; White, 

 twenty-six and sixteen pounds ; Black, twenty-seven 

 and eighteen pounds. 



The weights above named are only reached, as a 

 rule, by birds that are two years old or over. Some- 

 times they are exceeded even by younger specimens. 

 In 1866, a Connecticut woman sent to President John- 

 son a gobbler, not quite two years old, that tipped the 

 beam at forty-seven pounds. 



