74 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



About twelve years ago, Mr. Nelson contrib- 

 uted a very valuable article on wild turkeys, 

 portions of which are eminently worthy of the 

 space here required to quote them. 1 He says 

 among other things in this article that ' 'All recent 

 ornithologists have considered the wild turkey 

 of Mexico and the southwestern United States 

 (aside from M. gallopavo intermedia) as the 

 ancestor of the domesticated bird. This idea 

 is certainly erroneous, as is shown by the series of 

 specimens now in the collection of the Biolog- 

 ical Survey. When the Spaniards first entered 

 Mexico they landed near the present city of 

 Vera Cruz and made their way thence to the 

 City of Mexico. 



"At this time they found domesticated turkeys 

 among the Indians of that region, and within a 

 few years the birds were introduced into Spain. 2 



*Nelson, E. W. "Description of a New Subspecies of Meleagris 

 gallopavo and proposed changes in the nomenclature of certain North 

 American birds. ' ' Auk, XVII, April 1 900, pp . 1 20-1 23. 



2 Among the luxuries belonging to the high condition of civilization 

 exhibited by the Mexican nation at the time of the Spanish conquest 

 was the possession of Montezuma by one of the most extensive zoological 

 gardens on record, numbering nearly all the animals of that country, with 

 others brought at much expense from great distances, and it is stated 

 that turkeys were supplied as food in large numbers daily to the beasts 

 of prey in the menagerie of the Mexican Emperor. (Baird, ibid pi>. 

 288, 289.) 



