THE TURKEY HISTORIC 61 



and Europe; they are nearly thrice their size 

 and weight. I have seen several that have 

 weighed between twenty and thirty pounds, 

 and some have been killed that have weighed 

 near forty." 



And further on in the same work he adds 

 [Florida, p. 81] : " Having rested very well during 

 the night, I was awakened in the morning early 

 by the cheering converse of the wild turkey- 

 cocks (Meleagris occidentalis) saluting each 

 other from the sun-brightened tops of the lofty 

 Cupressus disticha and Magnolia grandiflora. 

 They begin at early dawn and continue till sun- 

 rise, from March to the last of April. The high 

 forests ring with the noise, like the crowing of 

 the domestic cock, of these social sentinels; the 

 watchword being caught and repeated, from 

 one to another, for hundreds of miles around, 

 insomuch that the whole country is for an hour 

 or more in a universal shout. A little after 

 sunrise, their crowing gradually ceases, they 

 quit then their high lodging places, and alight 

 on the earth, where, expanding their silver-bor- 

 dered train, they strut and dance round about 



