374 TURKY. Class II. 



these citations we find every character of the 

 Guinea hen, but none that agrees with the 

 Turky. 



Barbot* informs us that very few turkies are 

 to be met with in Guinea; and those only in 

 the hands of the chiefs of the European forts ; 

 the negroes declining to bleed any on account 

 of their tenderness, which sufficiently proves 

 them not to be natives of that climate. On the 

 contrary the same writer says, that the Guinea 

 hens, or as he calls them Pintadas, are found 

 there in flocks of two or three hundred, that 

 they perch in trees, and feed on worms and grass- 

 hoppers ; that they are run down and taken by 

 dogs, and that their flesh is tender and sweet, 

 generally white, though sometimes black. He 

 also remarks that neither the common poul- 

 try or ducks are natural to Guinea, any more 

 than the Turky. Neither is that bird a native 

 of Asia : the first that were seen in Persia were 

 brought from Venice by some Armenian mer 

 chantsf. They are also cultivated in Cey- 

 lon, but not found wild. In fact the Turky 

 was unknown^ to the antient naturalists, and 

 even to the old world before the discovery of 



* Barlot 217. f Tavernier. 146. 



t This subject has been most satisfactorily discussed by Mr. 

 Pennant in the Arctic Zoology, vol. i. p. 345, &c. Ed. 



