THE TURKEY HISTORIC 79 



head. The other breeds scarcely differ except 

 in colour, and their chickens are generally mot- 

 tled all over with brownish-grey. 1 



"In Holland there was formerly, according to 

 Temminick, a beautiful buff-yellow breed, fur- 

 nished with an ample white topknot. Mr. 

 Wilmot has described a white turkey-cock with 

 a crest formed of 'feathers about four inches 

 long, with bare quills, and a tuft of soft down 

 growing at the end.' 2 Many of the young birds 

 whilst young inherited this kind of crest, but 

 afterwards it either fell off or was pecked out by 

 the other birds. This is an interesting case, as 

 with care a new breed might probably have been 

 formed ; and a topknot of this nature would have 

 been, to a certain extent, analogous to that borne 

 by the males in several allied genera, such as 

 Euplocomus, Lophophorus, and Pavo" 3 



^ixon, E. S. "Ornamental Poultry," 1848, p. 34. This author also 

 noted the interesting fact that the female of the domesticated turkey 

 sometimes has the tuft of hair on her breast like the male. Bechstein 

 refers to the old German fable or superstition that a hen turkey lays as 

 many eggs as the gobbler has feathers in the under tail-coverts, which, 

 as we know, vary in number. (Naturgesch. Deutschlands, B iii, 1793, 

 s. 309.). 



'"Gardiner's Chronicle," 1852, p. 699. 



3 Darwin, Charles. "Animals and Plants Under Domestication," 

 Vol. 1, 1868, pp. 352-355. Other facts of this character are set forth 

 here which are of interest in the present connection. 



