44 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



after called "Guinea-fowl." 1 After the word 

 turkey was more generally applied to the. bird 

 now universally so known, some believe that 

 there was another reason as to how it came about, 

 and this "possibly because of its reputed call- 

 note," says Newton, "to be syllabled turk, turh, 

 turk, whereby it may be almost said to have 

 named itself." (Notes and Queries, ser. 6, III, 

 pp.23,369.) 2 



So much for the origin of the name turkey; and 

 when one comes to search through the literature 

 devoted to this fowl to ascertain who first de- 

 scribed the wild species, the opinion seems to be 



Columella. (De Re Rustica, VIII, cap. 2.) Edwards (Gleanings, II, 

 p. 269). 1760? 



2 Newton, Alfred. A Dictionary of Birds. (Assisted by Hans Gadow, 

 with contributions from Richard Lydekker, Chas. S. Roy, and Robert 

 W. Shufeldt, M. D.) Pt. IV, 1896, p. 994. The quotation is from the 

 Art. "Turkey," and in further reference to its name, Professor New- 

 ton remarks, "The French Coq and Poule a" Inde (whence Dindon) 

 involve no contradiction, looking to the general idea of what India then 

 was. One of the earliest German names for the bird, Kalekuttisch Hiim 

 (whence the Scandinavian Kalkun) must have arisen through some mis- 

 take at present inexplicable; but this does not refer, as is generally sup- 

 posed, to Calcutta, but to Calicut on the Malabar coast (Notes and 

 Queries, ser. 6, X, p. 185). 



"But even Linnsgus could not clear himself of the confusion, and, 

 possibly following Sibbald, unhappily misapplied the name Meleagris, 

 undeniably belonging to the guinea-fowl, as the generic term for what 

 we now know as the turkey, adding thereto as its specific designation 

 the word gallopavo, taken from the Gallopavus of Gesner, who, though not 

 wholly free from error, was less mistaken than some of his contemporaries 

 and even successors." 



