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CHAPTER XXXIV. 
THE TURKEY. 
Little or no doubt is now entertained by competent naturalists that the domestic Turkey is the 
legitimate descendant of the wild bird of North America, or of the sub-race found in Mexico, and 
only to be distinguished from it by the presence of white in the tail-coverts and tail. A few years 
back, however, very different opinions were held ; and so lately as 1866, Mr. Tegetmeier, following 
Professor Baird's great work on the Ornithology of North America, in which he strongly maintains 
that there must have been formerly another species of wild Turkey now extinct, from which the 
domestic bird is derived, went so far as to affirm that “ if there is one fact more clearly ascertained 
respecting the domestic Turkey than another, it is that it is certainly not descended from the 
common wild American species, as is generally stated by the compilers of the greater number of 
our works on poultry.” One of the chief facts relied upon in support of this view, besides the 
absence of any white in the plumage of the wild bird, was the alleged impossibility of domesticating 
it, or crossing it with the tame, which was supposed to be established by sufficient testimony, Captain 
P'lack especially being quoted as to this supposed fact. The result, however, may not only serve 
to show how cautiously all statements of such a nature should be received, but may throw light 
upon the reasons why they often remain uncontradicted, and on the best means of acquiring 
fuller information. Had the opinion above quoted, like Professor Baird’s, been published only in 
a scientific work, it would probably have yet remained uncorrected ; but being made in a work 
on poultry, it attracted the attention of poultry-breeders , who in this case are the parties most 
capable of throwing light upon the matter. Accordingly, Mr. Tegetmeier’s statements were quickly 
followed by the subjoined communication, addressed by Mr. F. W. Andrews, of Quebec, to one 
of the poultry periodicals of 1869 : — 
“ I was surprised,” he says, “to find it stated by Mr. Tegetmeier, in one of his compilations, ‘that 
though thousands of wild turkeys have been hatched under barn-door fowls, they have invariably 
strayed off the following spring to their wild kindred in the forests, with whom they have remained, 
and all attempts to retain the wild Turkey as a barn-yard fowl have completely failed/ Now, if this 
error, for error it most unquestionably is, has not been before refuted in your columns, perhaps you 
may deem the following notes on the matter worth publishing. The facts are all the other way, so 
much so that at the principal poultry-shows in Canada, prizes are regularly offered for the best 
specimens of domesticated wild turkeys. I myself have now in my possession a flock of these 
beautiful birds ; and though the old patriarch thereof, a splendid fellow, answering exactly to the 
description of the male wild Tuikey given on the same page of Mr. Tegetmeier’s book, has often 
strayed away, and once remained away for two nights, he always concludes it is best to come back 
to his wives and children, and especially to his food. He was hatched from an egg laid in the 
woods by the wild birds. 
“ I have raised, and now own, both the pure wild turkeys and the half-breds, but greatly 
prefer the former, as being infinitely the handsomer, the larger, and much the hardier. I did not 
lose a chick last year by disease of any kind. Instead of being stupid, like the common Turkey, 
