294 



WILD TURKEY. 



-acornSj and various berries j and before fun-fet retire to the fwamps 

 -to rooft. 



The flefii of the wild Turkey is faid to be fuperior in goodnefs to 

 the tame, but redder. Eggs of the former have been taken from 

 the neft, and hatched under tame Turkies j the young will ftill prove 

 wild, perch feparate, yet mix and breed together in the feafon. The 

 Indians fometimes ufe the breed produced from the wild, as decoy- 

 birds, to feduce thofe in a ftate of nature within their reach *. 



Wild Turkies are now grown moft excelTively rare in the inhabited 

 parts oi Araerka, and are only found in numbers in the diftant and 

 moft unfrequented fpots. 



The Indians make a moft elegant cloathing of the feathers. They 

 twift the inner webs into a ftrong double thread of hemp, or inner 

 bark of the mulberry-tree, and work it like matting. It appears 

 very rich and glofly, and as fine as a filk fhag f . They alfo make 

 fans of the tail ; and the French of Louijiana were wont to make um- 

 brellas by the junction of four of the tails J. 



When difturbed, they do not take to wing, but run out of fight. 

 It is ufual to chafe them with dogs ; when they will fly, and perch 

 on the next tree. They are fo ftupid, or fo infenfible of danger, as 

 not to fly on being fhot at ; but the furvivors remain unmoved at 

 the death of their companions 1|. 

 PLACif. Turkies are natives only oi America, or the New World; and of 



courfe unknown to the antients. Since both thefe pofitions have 

 been denied by fome of the moft eminent naturalifts of the fixteenth 

 century, I beg leave to lay open, in as few words as poflible, the 

 caufe of their error. 

 Mistaken by Belon §, the earlieft of thofe writers who are of opinion that thefe 

 birds were natives of the old world, founds his notion on the de- 

 fcription of the Guinea Fowl, the Meleagrides of Strabo, Athenaus, 

 Pliny, and others of the antients. I reft the refutation on the excel- 



* Latu/on, 149. t Laiv/ott, 18. Adair, 423. J Du Praiz, ii. 85. 



\\ Da Pratz, 2Z^. % 2i,%. Hift, des Oif. 



lent 



