WILD TURKEY. 247 
value this food so highly when roasted, that they call it “the 
white man’s dish,” and present it to strangers as the best they 
can offer. It seems probable that in Mexico the wild turkey 
cannot obtain such substantial food as in the United States, 
since Hernandez informs us that their flesh is harder, and in 
all respects inferior to that of the domestic bird. 
The Indians make much use of their tails as fans; the 
women weave their feathers with much art on a loose: web 
made of the rind of the birch-tree, arranging them so as to keep 
the down on the inside, and exhibit the brilliant surface to 
the eye. A specimen of this cloth is in the Philadelphia 
Museum ; it was found enveloping the body of an Indian 
female in the great saltpetre cave of Kentucky. 
Among the benefits conferred by America on the rest of the 
world, the gift of this noble bird should occupy a distinguished 
place, as unquestionably one of the most useful of the feathered 
tribe, being capable of ministering largely to the sustenance 
and comfort of the human race. Though the turkey is sur- 
passed in external beauty by the magnificent peacock, its flesh 
is greatly superior in excellence, standing almost unrivalled 
for delicacy of texture and agreeable sapidity. On this account 
it has been eagerly sought by almost all nations, and has been 
naturalised with astonishing rapidity throughout the world, 
almost universally constituting a favourite banquet-dish. 
The turkey, belonging originally to the American continent, 
was necessarily unknown to the ancients, who, in this as in a 
thousand other instances, were deficient in our most common 
and essential articles of food. Readers unacquainted with the 
fact may well be surprised to learn, that although the intro- 
duction of this bird into Europe is comparatively modern, 
its’ origin has already been lost sight of, and that eminent 
naturalists of the last century, who lived so much nearer to the 
time of its first appearance, have expressed great uncertainty 
concerning its native country. Thus Belon, Aldrovandi, Ges- 
ner, Ray, &., thought that it came originally from Africa and 
the Hast Indies, and endeavoured to recognise it in some of 
