118 
THE TURKEY. 
high forests ring with the noise of these social sen- 
tinels, the watchword being caught and repeated, 
from one to another, for hundreds of miles around, 
insomuch that the whole country is, for an hour or 
more, in an universal shout ; or, in the poetry of 
Southey, 
on the top 
Of yon magnolia, the loud Turkey’s voice 
Is heralding the dawn ; from tree to tree 
Extends the wakening watch-notes, far and wide. 
Till the whole woodlands echo with the cry. 
Although the Turkey is one of the most import- 
ant of the feathered race in the luxury and domes- 
tic economy of man, the exact period of its intro- 
duction into Europe and to Great Britain has been 
lost sight of, and by the older naturalists attempting 
to recognise in it some of the poultry of the ancients, 
it was conjectured to have come originally from In- 
dia and Africa, and the knowledge of its native 
country was, even for a considerable time, placed in 
uncertainty. 
The Turkey is a native of North America, and 
extends from the north-western territory of the 
United States to the Isthmus of Darien, to the 
south of which it is not found ; the Curassows or 
Craxes being evidently mistaken for it, by those who 
have noted it as an inhabitant of the southern conti- 
nent. The great nursery of the Turkey is in the 
wooded parts of Arkansaw, Louisiana, Tenessee, 
and Alabama : the unsettled portions of the States 
