117 
THE TURKEY. 
Meleagris g a llopavo Lin n m u s. 
PLATE I. Male PLATE II. Female and Y ounq. 
Meleagris gallopavo, Linnaus. — The Turkey, Pennant, 
Philosophical Transactions, vol. Ixxi. p. 67. — Le Dindon, 
Buffon — Temminck If istoirc Naturclle des Pigeons et GaU 
linacis, ii. p. 375. — Meleagris fera, Vieillot, Gallerie des 
Oiseatix Wild Turkey, Bonaparte, Continuation of Wil- 
son's N. American Ornithology, No. I. p. 79. Synopsis 
p. 123 Audubon, Ornithological Biography, i. p. 1,— 
Domestic Turkey, Pennant, British Zoology. 8vo edit, 
p. 374. — Meleagris occidcntalis, Bartram. 
The Wild Turkey should have been the emblem 
of North America, and so thought Benjamin Frank- 
lin. The Turkey is the national bird, truly indige- 
nous, and not found beyond the limits of that conti- 
nent : he is the herald of the morning, and around 
the log-house of the squatter, must convey associa- 
tions similar to those produced by the crowing of 
the cock around the cottage of the European farmer. 
“ I was awakened,” says Bartram, “ in the morning 
early, by the cheering converse of the wild turkey 
cocks saluting each other from the sun-brighteDed 
tops of the lofty cypress and magnolia. They be- 
gin at early dawn, and continue till sunrise. The 
