, [ l 39 ] 



liave very few of thefe till the Sixteenth Century ; as alfo, 

 that the place where the feaft is given, and the time of year, 

 is very material. If at a diftance from London, thefe dainties 

 could not be procured ; whiift the autumn only produced the 

 chickens or powts, which were then only eaten by our ancestors, 

 as they had not difcovered that a grown turkey becomes only a 

 delicacy by having been kept for a fortnight or three weeks. 



Having thus endeavoured to fhew that M. BufFon is not fup- 

 ported by any of his authorities in the turkey's not being known 

 till the difco very of America, it would be uncandid to fupprefs a 

 ftronger proof on his fide of the queftion than any which he 

 hath produced, and which I happened to {tumble upon in my 

 refearches on this queftion. 



Peter Gyllius, who was a native of France, and published a 

 tranflation of ./Elian's Mifcellaneous Hiftory in 1535, together 

 with a few remarks of his own, hath defcribed the turkey; 

 faying, that the living fpecimens had been brought ex Novo 

 Orbe. 



Though, perhaps, there may be doubts whether this expreffion 

 alludes to America, or the difcoveries of the Portuguefe in Afia, 

 yet I will admit it to refer to the former, according to Gyl- 

 lius's meaning ; but ftili I conceive he mull: have been deceived 

 from the following circumflances. 



Gyllius was born in 1490, and died in 1555, having travelled 

 for forty years of his life, and, amongft other parts of the world, 

 to Conftantinople, of which he hath printed a defcription, toge- 

 ther with that of the Bofphorus Thracius. As he does not men- 

 tion where he faw thefe birds, it is not improbable that this 

 might have happened in Turkey; and can it be otherwife fuppof.d 

 that they could have been brought to any part of Europe (except 

 Spain), within eight years from Cortez's firft return from 



T 2 Mexico, 



