388 Notes on the Races of Rein Deer. [No. 4, 



It is only recently tliat the true prototype of the common Turkey 

 (GrALLiPAVO mexicana of Gould) has been made known ; and the 

 wild bird is peculiar to the eastern water-shed of N. America ; the 

 wild Turkey of the Atlantic side of the Rocky Mountains being 

 conspicuously distinct. The domestic Turkey was imported into Spain 

 early in the 16th century ; and from Spain it was introduced into 

 England in 1524. " This fowl was first seen in France in the reign of 

 Francis I, and in England in that of Henry VIII. By the date of the 

 reigns of these monarchs, the first Turkeys must liave been brought 

 from Mexico ; the conquest of which was completed A. D. 1521."* 

 These facts are generally known ; but not the fact, for which there 

 is abundant evidence, that the domestic Turkey was introduced from 

 Europe into the N. American colonies, where a kindred wild species 

 abounded in the forest.f Mr. Gould has remarked that the hybrids 



or c wild Turkeys,' of various regions of the old world are different Bustards ; among 

 others the great Bustard of Australia is not unfrequently designated the ' wild Tur- 

 key,' and the Australian Taleg-alla Lathami is termed the ' Brush Turkey.' But 

 it appears that the true wild Turkey of the Atlantie side of the Bocky mountains 

 of North America (M. gallipavo verusj was formerly naturalized in Ireland! 

 — " the breed, the true copper-colour, with red legs." (Vide Thompson, ■ On 

 the former Existence of the Capercali in Ireland.' Ann. Mag. N. H., X (1S43), 

 p. 33.) The Societe d' Acclimation should turn its attention to the naturalization 

 of this fine species, before it is quite extirpated, in various forests of Europe. 

 (For information regarding the Ocellated Turkey, vide Troc. Lin. Soc. 1859, 

 pt. 1, p. 62, and The Ibis, No. VIII.) 



As the indigenous range of the Turkey genus is restricted to North and Cen- 

 tral America, so is that of the various Bustards to the major continent with 

 Australia. But the name ' Bustard' is misapplied in the West, as that of ' wild 

 Turkey' in the East. Thus the so-called ' Bustard' of the N. American fur- 

 countries is the Canada Goose ! (Vide Franklin's 2nd Voyage, p. 80.) Hence 

 ' Bustard Island' on Lake Athabaska! Pernetty, in his Historical Journal of 

 the Voyage to the Falkland Islands, under the command of M. de Bougainville, 

 states that " We found the Bustard exquisite, either boiled, roasted, or fricasseed. 

 It appeared from the account we kept that we ate 1500 of them." The Falkland 

 Island Goose is probably here intended. In S. Africa, the largest species of 

 Bustard is known as the Paouio (or ' Peacock') to the colonists — perhaps the 

 true pronunciation of the Latin Pavo, imitative of the voice of the Peafowl. 



* Encyclopedia Brittanica. 



■f The reverend divine, Mr. Francis Higgeson, who wrote c A Description of 

 New England's Plantation' in 1630, remarks of the harbour of Plymouth, that 

 " the parsnips, carrots, and turnips are here bigger and sweeter than is ordinary 

 to be found in England ; the Turkeys are far greater than our English Turkeys, 

 and exceedingly fat and sweet and fleshy." I take this quotation from the 

 ' Edinburgh Review,' No. CCVIII, p. 560 ; and it may be that wild Turkeys 

 are intended ; but the reference to English Turkeys should indicate that the 

 latter were never derived from the N. American ' plantations,' at least within the 

 knowledge of the colonists more than two centuries ago. Again, Mynheer Van- 

 der Donk, in his ' Description of the New Netherlands' (Amsterdam, 1656), 

 describing the State of New York as it appeared at its first settlement by Euro- 

 peans, states, that " the most important fowl of the country is the wild Turkey. 

 They resemble the tame Turkey of the Netherlands .'" 



