10 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
The early history of this bird is interesting to those 
who care to note what great vitality a fallacy has, and 
how easy it is to err unwittingly. Thus, Belon and Ges- 
ner assumed that the tarkey was the Meleagris of the 
ancients, whereas the bird known by that name was the 
Guinea fowl (Numide Meleagris), which was quite com- 
mon in Turkey, Egypt, and other Oriental countries. 
Linneus, keen observer and naturalist as he was, 
adopted the technical nomenclature of a preceding nat- 
uralist, and gave the turkey the name by which it is 
known to science, namely, Meleagris gallopavo, although 
he knew very well whence it came, and mentions the fact 
in his work, for he places the habitat of the Gallopavo 
sylvestris of Ray in New England. 
Brisson was the first person to disentangle the history 
of the turkey and the Guinea fowl, for he gave an elab- 
orate description, many synonyms, and a figure of 
each, and thus proved that the Meleagris mentioned by 
Aristotle, Athaneus, Pliny, and other authors could 
not be the gobbling native of the New World. 
The source from which the turkey came to Europe was 
also a matter of dispute for some years. All the early 
ornithologists, such as Ray, Willughby, Gésner, Belon, 
Barrington, and Aldrovandi thought it had been im- 
ported from Asia, and their statements were accepted as 
facts until Buffon gave a lucid history of its migrations. 
Its English name is derived from the idea that it orig- 
inally came from the Turkish dominions, so that it has 
been one of the most misunderstood members of the 
feathered creation, so far as its name and origin are con- 
cerned. The supposition that it came from Turkey was 
probably based on the fact that Guinea fowls were im- 
_ ported into England from the Levant in the sixteenth 
century, and the turkey having found its way into the 
country about the same time, the general public assumed 
that both came from the same place. 
