ORDER GALLINJE. 155 



grides of the ancients, are our common pintados, or, as they 

 are vulgarly termed, guinea-fowl. 



The New Continent was the cradle of the turkey race, and 

 it is there alone that it is found to live in an independent 

 state. It is so in no other part of the world, neither is it any 

 where else so large or so handsome. Its propagation there is 

 doubly more numerous than in our climates. Fernandez 

 finds the primitive stock of the turkey in the Mexican bird 

 Huoxolotl ; the name which in that language the male turkey 

 bears. The female has another appellation, which might be 

 written, but Avould be found rather difficult to pronounce. 



The turkey, considering its weight, and the insufficiency 

 of its powers of flight, could not possibly cross the tract of 

 ocean which separates the two continents. Accordingly, 

 we find the turkey in a state of liberty in no other lati- 

 tudes than those of America. It is to the care of man that 

 we owe the acquisition of this useful bird. The domesticated 

 race of our present days is spread throughout almost all the 

 countries of the globe. Wherever the Europeans have esta- 

 blished themselves, these birds have been transported, and the 

 unvarying testimony of travellers confirms the facts which we 

 have now alleged. 



Father Bourzes, the Jesuit, for instance, tells us, that 

 there are no wild turkeys in the Peninsula, within the 

 Ganges. Dampier saw none at Mindanao. Chardin, and 

 Taveniier, who traversed most parts of Asia, declare posi- 

 tively, that no wild turkeys are to be found throughout 

 that vast extent of territory. According to the last men- 

 tioned of these travellers, it was the Armenians who imported 

 them into Persia, where they have not thrived very success- 

 fully. The Hollanders brought them to Batavia, where they 

 have prospered much better. Turkeys are even very abun- 

 dant in that colony, and their flesh is in high estimation. 

 The turkeys of Hindostan are owing to the cares of our own 



