
250 WILD TURKEY. 
his letters, “as looking too much like a dindon, or turkey. 
For my own part, I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen 
as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral 
character ; he does not get his living honestly ; you may have 
seen him perched on some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish 
for himself, he watches the labour of the fishing-hawk, and, 
when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is 
bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young 
ones, the bald eagle pursues him, and takes it from lim. 
With all this injustice, he is never in good case, but, like 
those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is 
generally poor, and often very lousy. Besides, he is a rank 
coward; the little kingbird, not bigger than a sparrow, attacks 
him boldly, and drives him out of the district. He is, there- 
fore, by no means, a proper emblem for the brave and honest 
Cincinnati of America, who have driven all the kingbirds from 
our country, though exactly fit for that order of knights which 
the French call Chevaliers @industrie. Iam, on this account, 
not displeased that the figure is not known as a bald eagle, 
but looks more like a turkey. For, in truth, the turkey is, in 
comparison, a much more respectable bird, and withal a true 
original native of America. Eagles have been found in all 
countries, but the turkey was peculiar to ours. He is, besides 
(though a little vain and silly, tis true, but not the worse 
emblem for that), a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to 
attack a grenadier of the British Guards who should presume 
to invade his farmyard with a red-coat on.” 
But since the choleric temper and vanity of the tame turkey 
are proverbial in various languages, in some of which its very 
name 1s opprobrious, and often applied in derision to vain- 
glorious and stupid people, we are better satisfied that its 
effigy was not placed on the escutcheon of the United States. 
Those who have not observed the turkey in its wild state, 
have only seen its deteriorated progeny, which are greatly in- 
ferior in size and beauty. So far from having gained by the 
care of man, and the abundance of food accessible in its state 
