5 1 8 
The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 
The Mexican Turkey (Meleagris Mexican! ) scarcely differs from the above, as before stated, 
except in the presence of white among the tail-feathers and tail-coverts. It breeds freely with 
either the wild or domestic races, and is quite evidently only a sub-variety of colour, descended, 
and barely distinguishable even now, from the ordinary wild bird of the United States. 
More distinction, however, may be observed in the splendid Honduras or Ocellated Turkey 
( Meleagris ocellata ), found in Honduras, Yucatan, and throughout Central America ; though even 
this variety is found to breed freely with the domestic birds, the progeny being fertile. In 
this variety of Turkey, besides the difference of plumage, the hairy tuft on the breast is absent, 
and the lower part of the naked portion of the neck is not carunculated as in the common bird. 
The plumage, however, presents the most striking difference, presenting a ground-colour chiefly 
of the most beautiful bronzed green, banded with gold-bronze, brilliant black, and lower down the 
back with intense blue and red, resembling shot silk. Near the tail these bands are so sharp as to 
make the feathers appear almost as if “ocellated” or eyed, as in the tail of the peacock, from which 
the bird takes its name. The pea-fowl itself could scarcely be more brilliant in appearance, and it 
is much to be wished that so glorious a bird could be added to our yards; but all attempts hitherto 
made in this direction have failed. The bird breeds freely, but appears so far to be too delicate 
for any but a tropical climate, and all as yet imported have died, in some cases however leaving 
hybrids. In reply to an inquiry of our own, Mr. W. Simpson, Jun., from whom our notes on 
the American Bronze Turkeys were obtained, informed us that he had himself made several 
attempts to introduce the Ocellated Turkey north, but that he too had equally failed. He 
intended however to repeat his attempts in a more cautious manner, and entertained some hope 
that, by leaving the next specimens he could obtain to breed in the care of friends in the more 
southern States of the Union, he might get the stock more gradually acclimatised. A breed of such 
extreme beauty is certainly well worth every effort in this direction, more especially as it appears 
more naturally inclined to domestication than the wild North American variety. 
No really authentic portrait of the Honduras Turkey taken from life exists, so far as we are 
aware. The best we have seen is that given by Dr. Brehm, but it appears from the attitude to be 
drawn from a stuffed bird. 
Passing from the wild Turkey to the domestic bird and its management, we may observe that 
this too seems to have merged into three tolerably marked and definite varieties, known as the 
Norfolk Turkey, the Cambridge, or variegated variety, and the beautiful “ bronzed ” Turkey 
recently introduced from North America. 
The counties of Norfolk and Cambridge have long been celebrated for the immense number of 
turkeys they send to the London market, and which constitute a trade as well marked as the 
poultry-raising which we have already described as carried on in Surrey and Sussex. As a few 
particulars in this case also may prove both useful and interesting, we extract the following remarks 
from a paper by Mr. H. H. Dixon in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society: — 
“ The eastern counties,” he says, “ may be said to have pretty nearly a monopoly of our English 
turkey raising and feeding. Hen-wives are generally ‘ afraid to meddle with them,’ on the score 
of delicacy ; but if the requisite food and attendance are not found to be thrown away in Norfolk, 
Cambridgeshire, &c., why should they be elsewhere, except in an essentially damp climate ? They 
must be tenderly reared, and not ‘ dragged up,’ as the saying is. 
“ The Norfolk Turkey is black, with a few white spots on its wings. The Cambridgeshire 
Turkey is of a bronze grey, and rather longer in the leg and bigger in the bone. Very few white 
ones are to be seen, as they are supposed, like a white long-horn cow, to be more delicate. The 
adherents of the Norfolk Blacks consider that they lay on more flesh, and that it is whiter and 
