[ *3* j 



" ante centum, et quod excurrit, annos, delata haec avis (fc. Gall. 

 6 f Pavo) ex Nova India in Europam '." 



I really am not without my doubts, whether by Nova India 

 Sperlingius does not mean fome of the difcoveries of the Portu- 

 guefe in the Eaft Indies; but, allowing him to fpeak rather of 

 America, let us examine this aflertion, for which he cites no 

 authority whatfoever. 



Sperlingius' s Zoologia Phyfica was printed at Leipfic in 1 66 1 ; 

 and from the pretence to great accuracy in fpeaking of 101 years 

 rather than a round 100, the turkey muft have been firft brought 

 to Europe from Nova India during the year 1560; whereas four 

 young turkies k (and confequently bred in England) were dreffed 

 at aferjeant's feaft in 1555 which, by the way, was but twenty- 

 feven years after Cortez's firft return to Spain. 



But I fufpecl: at leaft, that I find a ftili earlier mention of 

 turkies in England, for capons of Greafe (Greece probably) made 

 part of an entertainment in the fixtk year of Edward IV. A. D. 

 1467 rn ; it being highly probable that this bird was common to 

 two countries lying fo near to each other, as Greece and Aria 

 Minor. 



Sperling, how T ever, printing his work at Leipfic, muft be fup- 

 pofed to have- been a native of Saxony ; and how are we to ex- 

 pect an accurate account of the introduction of turkies into 

 Europe from an inland part of that empire, which never had 

 the leaft intercourfe with America ? I fhall alfo prove hereafter, 

 that fuppofing the paflage cited to relate to America, and not to 



5 P. 366. 



k They are fo called, and undoubtedly, as Willoughby obferves, be- 

 caufe they were fuppoled to have been introduced into England from 

 that quarter. 



1 Dugdale's Orig. Jur. p. 135. 



" Leland's Itinerary, vol. VI. p. 5. 



S 2 India, 



