214 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



most useful bird was introduced into any European 

 state. Little therefore is gained from its early history 

 beyond the mere proof of the rapidity with which the 

 process of domestication may sometimes be effected. 

 Of the means employed we are wholly ignorant. A 

 knowledge of them could not fail to be interesting to 

 those engaged in similar pursuits, as the Turkey is a 

 bird which it requires considerable attention, even in 

 the present day, and after long acclimating, to breed 

 successfully. It is time, however, that we should turn 

 from this inquiry to the more immediate object of the 

 present article, the natural history of the bird in its 

 wild state. Our principal materials for this purpose 

 will be derived from an excellent memoir by M. Charles 

 Lucien B()naj)urte, in his Continuation of Wilson's 

 American Ornithology. 



The essential generic characters of the Turkey, ac- 

 cording to M. Temminck, are comprised in the following 

 particulars. Its bill is short, strong, with the upper 

 mandible curved, convex, and vaulted, covered at the 

 base by a naked skin, and surmounted by a lax caruncle; 

 its nostrils lateral, within the cere, and half closed by 

 an overarching membrane ; its head and neck covered 

 with papillee ; its throat fmnished with a lax mem- 

 brane ; its tail composed of eighteen feathers, capable 

 of being elevated so as to form a semicircle ; its legs 

 provided with an obtuse spur, and terminating in four 

 toes, the anterior three of which are united at the base 

 by a mendjrane ; and its wings short, with the first 

 three quills regularly graduated, and less elongated 

 than the fourth, which is the longest of the whole 

 series. In establishing this geims Linnaeus, although 

 fully aware of the American origin of the bird, adopted 

 from the earliei' writers the classical name of Meleagris, 

 which it has ever since retained, and which, however 



