5o5 . ^0^ 



CriArTER XXXIII. 



THE TURKEY. 



Little or no doubt is now entertained by competent naturalists that the domestic Turkey is the 

 legitimate descendant of the wild bird of North America, or of the sub-race found in Mexico, and 

 only to be distinguished from it by the presence of white in the tail-coverts and tail. A few years 

 back, however, very different opinions were held ; and so lately as 1866, Mr. Tegetmcier, following 

 Professor Baird's great work on the Ornithology of North America, in which he strongly maintains 

 that there must have been formerly another species of wild Turkey now extinct, from which the 

 domestic bird is derived, went so far as to affirm that " if there is one fact more clearly ascertained 

 respecting the domestic Turkey than anotJier, it is that it is certainly not descended from the 

 common wild American species, as is generally stated by the compilers of the greater number of 

 our works on poultry."* One of the chief facts relied upon in support of this view, besides the 

 absence of any white in the plumage of the wild bird, was the alleged impossibility of domesticating 

 it, or crossing it with the tame, which was supposed to be established by sufficient testimony, Captain 

 Flack especially being quoted as to this supposed fact. The result, however, may not only serve 

 to show how cautiously all statements of such a nature should be received, but may throw light 

 upon the reasons why they often remain uncontradicted, and on the best means of acquiring 

 fuller information. Had the opinion above quoted, like Professor Baird's, been published only in 

 a scientific work, it would probably have yet remained uncorrected ; but being made in a work 

 on poultry, it attracted the attention of poultry-breeders, who in this case are the parties most 

 capable of throwing light upon the matter." Accordingly, Mr. Tegetmeier 's statements were quickly 

 followed by the subjoined communication, addressed by Mr. F. VV. Andrev.s, of Quebec, to one 

 of the poultry periodicals of 1869 : — 



" I was surprised," he says, "to find it stated by Mr. Tegetmeier, in one of his compilations, 'that 

 though thousands of wild turkeys have been hatched under barn-door fowls, they have invariably 

 strayed off the following spring to their wild kindred in the forests, with whom they have remained, 

 and all attempts to retain the wild Turkey as a barn-yard fowl have completely failed.' Now, if this 

 error, for error it most unquestionably is, has not been before refuted in your columns, perhaps you 

 may deem the following notes on the matter worth publishing. The facts are all the other way; so 

 much so that at the principal poultry-shows in Canada, prizes are regularly offered for the best 

 specimens of domesticated wild turkeys. I myself have now in my possession a flock of these 

 beautiful birds ; and though the old patriarch thereof, a splendid fellow, answering exactly to the 

 description of the male wild Turkey given on the same page of Mr. Tegetmeier's book, has often 

 strayed away, and once remained away for two nights, he always concludes it is best to come back 

 to his wives and children, and especially to his food. He was hatched from an egg laid in the 

 woods by the wild birds. 



" I have raised, and now own, both the pure wild turkej's and the half-brcds, but greatly 

 prefer the former, as being infinitely the handsomer, the larger, and much the hardier. I did not 

 lose a chick last year by disease of any kind. Instead of being stupid, like the common Turkey, 



