[ 537 ] 



bird was therefore become very common in Italy, where it was 

 probably introduced from Greece according to the above citation 

 from Ginnani. 



A defcription of the Animals and Plants of the Indies by Cof- 

 mas the hermit was publifhed at Paris in 1664, in which a Flora 

 and Fauna Sinenfis alfo is inferted from Michael Boym ; amongfl 

 the animals is an engraving of the Chinefe bird called a Teh\. 

 named by Boym Galllna Syheftris, and faid to be very large. As 

 the bird thus engraved is represented with a caruncle of flefli 

 covering the bill, and a bunch of hairs on the breail:, there can be 

 little doubt but that this is a turkey. 



Le Bruyn ftates that in 1 704 a large turkey was ufually fold in 

 Perfia for 7 or 8 fols, when a tame goofe could not be procured 

 under 40 or 50. QJiowthis is at all reconcileable to Tavernier's 

 account that thefe birds are not known in Perfia ? 



The 3d volume of De Bry's America 6 mentions that hawks and 

 Eagles where fent from Mexico to the Spanilh nobles, but is filent 

 as to turkies. 



Rabelais wrote his hiftory of Pantagruel in r 533, which was 

 but 13 years after the conqueft of Mexico, and makes Poulles de 

 Inde a dim at an entertainment f . 



Dr. Grew, in his Catalogue of the Royal Society's Mufeum, ob« 

 ferves that one of the known gems is called Turcois, becaufe it is 

 found in that part of Afia, or at leaft purchafed there. From the 

 fame circumftance only could this bird therefore receive, its appel- 

 lation. 



I conceive, laftly, that fome of the American fowls mentioned by 

 early Geographers, are the Curafoa birds, and not turkies, as 

 they do not differ materially in fize, and are faid to be good 



e Printed in 1602. 



f L. 1. ch. 37. See alfo 1. IV. ch. 52. and 1. V. ch. 7. 



% meat, 



