[ 8 36 ] 
are all double 3 that is, two diftindt feathers proceed- 
ing from one hem 3 the outer large, and of a firm 
texture 3 the inner fmaller, and altogether downy. 
Whether this bird be produced from a turkey -hen 
and a cock-pheafant, or from a turkey-cock and hen- 
pheafant, no one knows. I fhould think it rather 
from a hen-turkey and cock-pheafant 3 becauie their 
difparity in fize is not near fo great, as between the 
turkey-cock and hen-pheafant, Though the fuppo- 
iition, that this bird is from an egg laid by a hen- 
turkey trodden by a cock-pheafant, is attended with 
a difficulty not eafily reconciled 3 for it is not pro- 
bable, that a hen-turkey, a domeftic fowl, fhould 
betake herfelf to the woods, and bring up her brood 
wild, and unobferved 5 which is contrary to the habit 
of turkeys in our country, where they are not ori- 
ginally natives. Why thefe mixed generations fo 
rarely happen, is, I believe, becaufe nature has fixed 
the inclination of every diftindt fpecies to the con- 
trary fex of its own identical fpecies, from which, in 
a wild and natural ftate, it will hardly ever ftray. 
The reafon of the mixtures, that we meet with, con- 
trary to the ordinary courfe of generation, may pro- 
ceed from fome hinderance of the male’s meeting 
with his proper female, or female with male, at the 
feafons, when they are by nature appointed to propa- 
gate their fpecies, which rarely happens 3 for, in a 
wild ftate of nature, moft animals are numerous, 
and, at their breeding feafons, eafily meet with males 
or females of their own fpecies. Difappointments of 
what they naturally feek, and accidental meetings of 
different fpecies, near of kin to each other, caufe thefe 
unnatural conjundtions, which produce uncommon 
5 mixed 
