t m ] 



India, we fhall find this writer to be contradicted by the terms now 

 ufed in Germany when the turkey is fpoken of. I am confident, 

 moreover, that this whole treatife of Zoologia Phyfica is fuch a 

 publication, as M. Buffon would neither read nor cite for any 

 other purpofe ; efpecially as Sperling fuppofes the bird in quefHon 

 to be a monftrous production between the peacock and common 

 hen, both of which nvere firft brought to Europe from Alia; as 

 alio that there is frequently intercourfe between turkies and ducks 



Buffon next endeavours to prove, that the turkey does not 

 come from Afia but America, by travellers agreeing that few- or 

 none are found over that vaff. and jarjft- mentioned continent. 



Before I enter into a difcuffion of this laffc argument, iniifted 

 upon by fo ingenious and able an ornithologift, I fhall premife, that 

 moft of his authorities relate to the S. E. parts of Afia, and not 

 to Afia Minor, or Indoftan, from whence I rather fuppoie the 

 turkey was firft brought into Europe. 



In the next place, though fome of thefe travellers have palled 

 through considerable trails of this quarter of the globe, it is no 

 more to be inferred, becaufe they did not obferve turkies in 

 their route, that therefore they are not to be found in other 

 parts of Afia, than if an Afiatic had made a complete tour of Great 

 Britain fifty years ago, without feeing Guiney-bens, that the 

 Englifh were therefore without that bird. I mention fifty years 

 ago, becaufe Gulney-hens fince that time have become much more 

 common in this country % 



This 



n Though I disbelieve this, together with M. Buffon, yet I have fre- 

 quently been informed that ducks, hatched under a hen, prefer them 

 to the females of their own fpecies, or rather genus. Suppofing this to 

 be true, where birds do not dirfer generically, as ducks and hens do, 

 perhaps the hatching the eggs of one lpecies under that of another is the 

 moft likely means . to produce a mixed breed. 



° As M. Buffon's moft pofitive authority for this negative fort of proof 

 is Tavernier, I mail now endeavour to lhew that little is to be inferred 



from 



