224 OUT OF DOORS. 



at Christmas. Sometimes both events occur simul- 

 taneously, and the same P. D. C. cart which takes away 

 a hamper containing a turkey and a barrel of oysters, 

 deposits another hamper containing another turkey and 

 another barrel of oysters. An enquiring mind cannot 

 but be struck with the enormous multitudes of birds and 

 molluscs that must be bred in order to supply even 

 the vast annual demand for Christmas, taking no ac- 

 count of those that are consumed during the other 

 seasons of the year. 



To begin at the beginning. For the first knowledge 

 of the turkey we are indebted to Columbus, inasmuch 

 as the bird is indigenous to America, and is by no 

 means a native of Turkey, as is the general but mistaken 

 idea. The popular name was given to the bird in allu- 

 sion to its proud and haughty strut, its unconscionably 

 large harem, and its irascible temper. For at the 

 time when the bird was first brought into notice the 

 Turks were a dominant nation, with rather more than 

 the usual intolerant arrogance which is likely to cha- 

 racterise a people at once powerful, bigoted, ignorant, 

 and exclusive. Even at the present day, when the 

 once all-powerful nation has sunk into the position of 

 a mere province, whose very existence is only main- 

 tained by the common consent of surrounding countries, 

 the regular orthodox Turk is as supremely contemptuous 

 towards an infidel as in the days of his ascendancy, 

 though he dares not express his feelings except by low 

 and muttered curses. As it is, he will seize every 



