E l 37 ] 



I mall now mention fonie of the Afiatic names for a turkey. 



I find by an Italian and Turkim Dictionary, printed at Rome 

 in 1 641, that this bird is termed in that language Hind Taught* \ 

 and in Arabic Deek Hindy, both fignifying the cock of India; 

 in fome parts of Afia Minor alio, I am informed that it is ftiled 

 Mefry or Myfyr, fignifying the bird from Egypt. 



It will fcarcely therefore be contended that the Turks (who 

 mull: have had this bird in confiderable numbers before 1 641 , fo that 

 it had obtained an Arabic as well as Turkifli name) by the term 

 Hindy mean the Weft Indies b , about which they were then, and 

 continue to be fo ignorant, efpecially as America in their lan- 

 guage is called 'ieni dunia c ; befides that fome of them conceive 

 the bird to have been introduced from Egypt by the term of Mefry 

 or Myjyr, it having probably been brought from India to Suez, 

 and from thence to Cairo. 



I fhall clofe the different fynonyms by our name of turkey, 

 which I have proved to have been ufed in England fo long ago 

 as the year 1555, becaufe the chickens or powts made part of 

 a ferjeant's feaft in that year. 



Turkies had fo increafed in England within twenty-five years 

 from this, that Caius in his account of our rarer animals (printed 

 in 1570) omits mention of them, though he is very particular 

 in the defcription of a Guinea hen, {tiling it Meleagris. At the 

 latter end of the fame century they were driven by the carriers 

 from Kent to London, as they are now from Norfolk d . 



a It had therefore obtained this name in Turkey, twenty years before 

 (according to Tavernier) it was fcarcely heard of in any parts of Afia. 



b Bind or tiend. Les Indes Orientates. Herbelot. 



c Or the N-ew IVorld, the Arabs ufing the lame term, though they 

 fometimes fay alio Amenh. 



d See Shakefpear's Henry IV. Pt. I. By a proclamation in 1633, their 

 price at different growths is fettled. Rymer, Vol. VIII. Pt. IY r . p. 53. 

 Some horfes left near Buenos Ayres, by the Spaniards, in thirty years 

 filled the country for twenty leagues round. Hakluyt, Pt. III. p. 7. 



T ' But 



