Chapter XII. 

 TURKEYvS AND GUINEA-FOWLvS. 



Ploxfj up your dogs and plant /«;X-o'-s.— 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 the parent stock from which 

 our domesticated bird is derived. 



Years ago the farm-yard flock was a somewhat 

 variegated lot, but 1)y 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-five and 

 twenty pounds ; Narragansett, thirty-two and twenty- 

 two 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 

 rvde, 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. 



