of the Turkey. jj 
pariffi of Ambrofden in Buckinghamffiire, among 
other articles, fix Mutilones and fix Jlfricana 
fcemmce for this fowl was familiarly known by 
the names of Afra Avis and Gallina Africana 
and Numida. It was introduced into Italy from 
Africa, and from Rome into our country. They 
were negledted here by reafon of their tendernefs 
and difficulty of rearing. We do not find them 
in the bills of fare of our ancient feads f ; nei- 
ther do we find the. Turkey : which lad argu- 
ment amounts to almod a certainty, that fuch a 
hardy and princely bird had not found its way to 
us. The other likewife was then known by its 
claflical name ; for that judicious writer Do&or 
caius defcribes, in the beginning of the reign of 
Elizabeth, the Guinea fowl, for the benefit of 
his. friend gesneb, under the name of Meleagris, 
bedowed on it by Aristotle 
Having denied, on the very bed authorities, 
that the Turkey ever exided as a native of the old 
world, I mud now bring my proofs of its being- 
only a native of the new, and of the period in 
which it fird made its appearance in Europe* 
but of The fird precife defcription of thefe birds is 
America, given by oyiedo, who in 1525 drew up a fum- 
mary of his greater work, the Hidory of the 
* rennet’s Parochial Antiq, 287. 
f Neither in that of george nevil nor among the delicacies mentioned 
In the Northumberland hovifhold book begun in the beginning of the reign of 
HENRY Vl'II. 
f CAii Opufc. it. Hill.. An. lib. VI, c„ s* 
* a i y » 
p . ' Indies, 
