292 TURKEY. 



Chap. VIII. 



peacock is a variety, the case is the most remarkable ever 

 recorded of the abrupt appearance of a new form, which so 

 closely resembles a true species that it has deceived one of 

 the most experienced of living ornithologists. 



The Tukkey. 



It seems fairly well established by Mr. Gould, 35 that the turkey, 

 in accordance with the history of its first introduction, is descended 

 from a wild Mexican species (Meleagris Mexicana) which had 

 been already domesticated by the natives before the discovery 

 of America, and which differs specifically, as it is generally 

 thought, from the common wild species of the United States. 

 Some naturalists, however, think that these two forms should 

 be ranked only as well-marked geographical races. However 

 this may be, the case deserves notice because in the United 

 States wild male turkeys sometimes court the domestic 

 hens, which are descended from the Mexican form, " and are 

 generally received by them with great pleasure." 36 Several 

 accounts have likewise been published of young birds, reared in 

 the United States from the eggs of the wild species, crossing 

 and commingling with the common breed. In England, also, 

 this same species has been kept in several parks ; from two of 

 which the Eev. W. D. Fox procured birds, and they crossed 

 freely with the common domestic kind, and during many years 

 afterwards, as he informs me, the turkeys in his neighbourhood 

 clearly showed traces of their crossed parentage. We here 

 have an instance of a domestic race being modified by a cross 

 with a distinct species or wild race. F. Michaux 37 suspected in 

 1802 that the common domestic turkey was not descended from 

 the United States species alone, but likewise from a southern 

 form, and he went so far as to believe that English and French 



35 'Proc. Zoolog. Soc.,' April 8th, dia, and this fact indicates that it was 

 1856, p. 61. Prof. Baird believes (as not aboriginally an inhabitant of the 

 quoted in Tegetmeier's ' Poultry Book,' lowlands of the tropics. 

 1866, p. 269) that our turkeys are 36 Audubon's ' Ornithological Bio- 

 descended from a West Indian species graph.,' vol. i., 1831, pp. 4-13; and 

 now extinct. But besides the impro- 'Naturalist's Library,' vol. xiv., Birds, 

 bability of a bird having long ago become p. 138. 



extinct in these large and luxuriant 3 '~ F. Michaux, ' Travels in N. Ame- 



islands, it appears (as we shall presently rica,' 1802, Eng. translat., p. 217. 

 see) that the turkey degenerates in In- 



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