WILD TURKEY. 



-97 



I will not quote Gemelli Careri, to prove that they are not foiind 

 in the Philippine illandsj be.:aufe that gentleman, with his pen, tra- 

 velled round the world in his eafy chair, during a very long indif- 

 pofition and confinement*. 



But Danipier bears witnefs that none are found in Mindanao -f . 



The hot climate of Africa hzxeXy fuffers thefe birds to exift in nor. Africa: 

 that vaft continent, except under the care of mankind. Very few 

 are found m Guinea, except in the hands of the Europeans', the ne- 

 groes declining to breed any, on account of their great tender- 

 nefs J. 



Pro/per ^^/»aj fatisfies us that they are not found either in Nubia 

 or in Egypt. He defcribes the Meleagrides of the antients ; and only 

 proves that the Guinea-hens were brought out of Nubia, and fold at 

 a great price at Cairo 1|, but is totally filent about the Turkey of the 

 moderns. 



Let me in this place obferve, that the Guinea-hens have long been 

 imported into Britain. They were cultivated in our farm-yards : 

 for I difcover, in 1277, in the grainge of Clifton, in the parilh 

 of Ambrofden, in Biickinghamjhire, among other articles, vi« muti- 

 Icnes, znd fex African/e /k'wzw^^ j for this fowl was familiarly 

 known by the names of Afra Avis, and Gallina Africana & Nu- 

 mida. It was introduced into Italy from Africa, and {rom Rome into 

 our country. They were neglefted here by reafon of their tender- 

 nefs and difficulty of rearing. We do not find them in the bills of 

 fare of our antient feafts § : neither do we find the Turkey : which 

 laft argument amounts to almoft a certainty, that fuch a hardy and 

 princely bird had not found its way to us. The other likewife was 

 tlien known here by its claffical name ; for that judicious writer, 



• Sir James Porter's Oh/. Turkey, i. I. f I. 321. 



X Barbot, in Churchill's Coll. v. 29. Bo/man, 229. 



II Hiji. Nat. uEgypii, I. zoi. ^ Rennet's Paroihial Antiq. 287- ' , 

 § Neither in that of George Nevil, archblfhop of Tork, in 1466, nor among the de- 

 licacies mentioned in the North urtiberland Houfcold Book, in the beginning of the 



reign of Henry VIII. 



Q^q Dr. 



'G- 



