392 Notes on the 'Races on Mein Deer. [No. 4, 



At the present time the domestic Turkey is nowhere raised more 

 abundantly, ñor is more cheaply procurable, than in the country from 

 which it thus erroneously derives its English ñame : for, although 

 the Musalmáns of India refuse to eat its flesh, (alleging that it 

 partakes of the nature of the Hog, as shewn by the tuft of bristles 

 on its breast,) their co-religionists of Turkey, Egypt, and even 

 Arabia (at Jidda at least, the port of Mekka), esteem it highly; and 

 at Cairo it is customary, some hours before killing one, to give it a 

 dose of ráki, which is believed to render the flesh more tender. The 

 only Turkey s I have seen in India are of the Norfolk breed, with 

 generally black plumage ; and this, with the bare skin of the head 

 and neck, may possibly have led to a supposition that the bird is 

 akin to a common black Vulture of the country, with bare red neck, 

 the Otogyps pcxnticerianus ; # yet, if the bird had been introduced 

 by Muhámmedans — say from Persia, instead of by Christians from 

 Europe, it is probable that people of that faith would have eaten the 

 Turkey here as elsewhere. Oíd Chardon mentions its introduction 

 into Persia from Venice by some Armenian merchants. 



* Some Turkey s which I once possessed did actually associate, to a certa in 

 extent, with a Vulture of the kind chained to a post ; that is to say, they gener- 

 ally kept near it, as if iinagining the black Vulture to be one of their own kind. 



