THE WILD TURKEY. 127 



Sumaria, cap. 38), the earliest naturalist who gives 

 any account of the bird, mentions having seen it in 

 the West Indies, " whither it had been brought from 

 New Spain." The former author further states, quoting 

 from Buffon,* that " the Spaniards saw immense num- 

 bers of turkeys in the domesticated state on their 

 arrival in Mexico, where they were more common than 

 any other poultry ; and that they were also found wild, 

 not only in New Spain, but all along the continent in 

 the less frequented places, from the North-Western terri- 

 tory of the United States to Panama." And again, in 

 the interesting relation of the advance of Cortes to 

 CempoaUa, he says that " Deer and various wild animals 

 were seen, with which the Spaniards were unacquainted ; 

 also pheasants and other birds, among them the Wild- 

 turkey, the pride of the American forest, which the 

 Spaniards described as a species of peacock." 



Their abundance is evident from a fact which I find 

 mentioned in an old book, called " Gay's Survey of the 

 West Indies and Mexico," published in 1702, namely, 

 that in Montezuma's menagerie, the animals were "fed 

 daily with turkey cocks, deere, dogs, and such like; one 

 house having for daily allowance five hundred turkeys." 

 Nor were they by any means confined to this southern 



* Histoire Naturelle. 



