THE TURKEY 67 



nutritious bird as a symbol of the great, peaceful, and 

 prolific American republic, in preference to a creature so 

 useless and destructive as an eagle — a kind of bird com- 

 mon to every quarter of the globe, and so hackneyed as 

 a national symbol that nothing less than representing 

 it with three heads would serve conspicuously to dis- 

 tinguish it from the single or double-headed eagles of 

 European monarchies. 



When North America was discovered, the turkey was 

 distributed very widely east of the Rocky Mountains 

 throughout what is now the United States, though as a 

 wild bird its range in our days has become very much 

 restricted. The Spaniards doubtless first brought it to 

 Europe, and it probably owes its English name to the 

 fact of its having first reached England in trading ships 

 from the Levant. The first description we have of the 

 turkey is that given by Oviedo in 1525, in his " History 

 of the Indies." In 1566, however, twelve of these birds 

 were presented to the French King Charles IX., and the 

 first record of its appearance at a state banquet was at 

 his wedding four years later. Soon after that it seems 

 to have become common in England, and already to 

 have found its place as a family dish at Christmas 

 dinners. 



We now propose to consider : (i) what are the turkey's 

 nearest allies among birds ; (2) what relation the group 

 to which it belongs bears to other groups of the class of 

 birds; (3) the relations which it bears as a bird to other 

 animals. 



The most anciently domesticated bird, and the one 

 now most widely diffused, is, of course, the fowl so ex- 

 tensively bred by the ancient Egyptians and so brutally 

 used in England down to the beginning of the last 

 century. Besides cock-fighting, there were the much 



