72 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



been almost wholly relied on by every subsequent 

 writer down to Willoughby. He speaks of it as 

 a bird that he has seen ; and he had not then been 

 further from his native country than Venice; and 

 states it to have been brought from the New 

 World. 



"That turkeys were known in France at this 

 period is further proved by a passage in Cham- 

 pier's 'Treatise de Re Cibaria,' published in 

 1560, and said to have been written thirty years 

 before. This author also speaks of them as hav- 

 ing been brought but a few years back from the 

 newly discovered Indian islands. From this 

 time forward their origin seems to have been 

 entirely forgotten, and for the next two centuries 

 we meet with little else in the writings of orni- 

 thologists concerning them than an accumula- 

 tion of citations from the ancients, which bear 

 no manner of relation to them. In the year 1566 

 a present of twelve turkeys was thought not 

 unworthy of being offered by the municipality 

 of Amiens to their king, at whose marriage, in 

 1570, Anderson states in his History of Com- 

 merce, but we know not on what authority, 



