turkey 
6536 
:orm, is properly restricted to these and to their feral turkeyback (ter'ki-bak), H. A large variety 
stock; and the distinctive onym of the United States o f the vellovvshauk, Tohinus melanoleucus. G. 
wild turkey becomes M. americana (lifter Bartram), or it. 
wlmitrii (after Vieillot, with those who decline to rec- 
ognize Bartram's names on the ground that his nomen- 
clature was not systematically binomial). The distinc- 
tions, though not trenchant, are obvious. (1) The north- 
ern wild turkey inhabits or has inhabited the eastern 
half of the United States, norlh into Canada, where It 
still occurs, northwest to some parts of the Missouri 
region, and southwest to Texas; it has been for many 
years extirpated from New England, where it formerly 
abounded; it lingers in the Middle States, still occurs 
in the immediate vicinity of Washington, and is com- 
mon in the South and West. The head and upper 
part of the neck are naked, bristly, and carunculatc, with 
an erect fleshy process on the former and a dewlap on 
the latter ; a long bunch of coarse hairy feathers hangs 
from the breast ; the tarsi are naked, scutellate before and 
behind, and spurred in the cock ; the tail is broad and 
rounded, of fourteen to eighteen feathers, capable of erec- 
tion into a circular disk (indicating the relationship of the 
turkey to the peafowl, and so of the 31 clear/rid se to the 
Phasianidie). The plumage is compact and lustrous, and 
that of the body is almost entirely of blackish bronzed tints, 
not markedly whitening on the rump, upper tail-coverts, 
and ends of the tail-feathers. The cock or gobbler is 
3 feet or more in total length, and may acquire a weight 
of 30 pounds, though the average is much less ; the hen 
is considerably smaller and lighter. The wild turkey is 
confined to woodland. It continues abundant enough to 
retain economic importance, and its chase is a distinct 
branch of field sport; it is usually pursued with the shot- 
gun, like other game-birds, or stalked with the rifle, like 
larger game ; it may be decoyed by imitating its gobbling 
(see turkey-call), and where abundant may be trapped 
(see turkey-pen). The female nests on the ground, and 
lays a numerous clutch of eggs of a bun" color profusely 
speckled with dark brown. The eggs have often been 
hatched under the domestic turkey, but the difficulty of 
immediately domesticating this feral stock is great. (2) 
The Mexican turkey, found wild in Texas, New Mexico, 
and Arizona, as well as southward, is mainly distinguished 
by the chestnut-brown upper tail-coverts with paler or 
whitish tips, and the similar light tips of the tail-feathers. 
This marking is usually distinctive, as when dark-colored 
individuals of the tame turkey are marketed unplucked 
for wild turkeys. Under domestication, now protracted 
for more than 300 years, this turkey has tended to enor- 
mous development of the caruncles and dewlap, oc- 
casionally sports a topknot of feathers, and runs into 
several color-strains which may be perpetuated by me- 
thodical selection. One of these, known in England as 
the Norfolk, tends to melanism, being chiefly of a luster- 
less blackish color; but the usual variation is in the oppo- 
site direction, resulting in the variegated plumage of the 
breed known in England as the Cambridyeshire, and in the 
buff, the pied, and even the white color-strain. (See also 
bronze turkey, under bronze.) 
Hares, Patridges, Turfdes, or Egges, fat or leane, young 
or old, they devoure all they can catch in their power. 
Capt. John Smith, Works, 1. 134. 
The Turkey [in New England] is a long Fowl, of a black 
colour, yet is his flesh white ; he is much bigger than our 
English Turky ; He hath long Leggs wherewith he can 
run as fast as a Dog, and can fly as fast as a Goose. 
S. Clarke, Four Plantations in America (1678), p. 36. 
(6) The second species of Meleayris is M. ocellata, the ocel- 
lated turkey of Honduras and some other parts of Central 
America. This is much smaller and more beautiful than 
Ocellatecl Turkey (Mtleafris octllala). 
the other ; the plumage is intensely lustrous, and in part 
eyed with iridescent ocelli, recalling those of the peacock; 
the bare head is deep-blue, studded with caruncles of an 
orange color, and no dewlap is developed. 
2. With qualifying term, one of several differ- 
ent Australian birds which resemble or suggest 
the turkey. See phrases below Bronze turkey 
See bronze. Cambridgeshire turkey. See def. i (a) (>). 
[Eng.] Colorado turkey. See Tantalus.- Crested 
turkey, a variety of the domestic turkey having a top- 
knot of feathers. This has long been known ; it was fig- 
ured by Albin in 1738, and was the gaUnpam cristate of 
various authors. Honduras turkey, the ocellated tur- 
key. Mexican turkey. See def. 1 (a). Native turkey, 
the Australian bustard, Otis (ChorMia) austrnlis. [Anglo- 
Australian.] New England Wild turkey, the feral tur- 
key of the region named. This was early noted as differ- 
ing from the domestic bird in its dark color and supposed 
greater size, and was the gallopaco sijlvestris of various 
writers, as Ray, 1713. Its size was usually exaggerated, 
even up to a weight of 60 pounds (Brisson, 1760). See def. 
1 (a) (1), and quotation from Clarke. -Norfolk turkey 
See def. i (a) (-2). [Eng.] - Ocellated turkey. See def 1 
(ft). Wild turkey. See def. 1 (a). (See als 
water-turkey.) 
Trim/bull, 1888. [Salem, Massachusetts.] 
turkeybeard (ter'ki-berd), n. A liliaceous 
plant of the genus Xeropliytlum. Also turkcy'g- 
beard. 
turkey-berry (ter'ki-ber'i), w. 1. The fruit 
of species of lihamnus, used in dyeing. See 
Persian berries, under Persian. 2. Either of 
the plants Solanum mammosum and S. torvum. 
[West Indies.] 3. A West Indian tree, Cordiit 
Collococca, bearing a small purple drupe ; also, 
its fruit. 
turkeyberry-tree (ter'ki-ber-i-tre), . See 
turkey-berry, 3. 
turkey-bird (ter'ki-berd), . The wryneck, 
lynx torquilla. [Local, British.] 
turkey-blossom (ter'ki-blos''um), n. See Tri- 
bidus. 
turkey-buzzard (ter'ki-buz"ard), n. An Amer- 
ican vulture of the family Catliartidee, the Ca- 
thartes aura, common and wide-spread through 
the greater part of North and South Amer- 
ica: generally so called in the United States 
in distinction from the black vulture, or car- 
rion-crow, of that country, Catharista atrata: 
more fully called red-headed turkey-bu:;ard. This 
well-known and very useful bird is abundant in most of 
the States, extends northward to Canada, and in the 
Southern States is an efficient scavenger. It is from 27 to 
30 inches long, and about 60 inches in extent, of a blackish- 
brown color, blacker on the wings and tail, and grayer on 
the wing-coverts ; the whole head is bare of feathers, and 
of a reddish color ranging from livid crimson to pale car- 
mine in the adults ; the beak is white ; the feet are flesh- 
colored, and the eyes brown. The naked skin of the head 
is wrinkled and sparsely bristled ; the feathers begin in a 
circle around the upper part of the neck, and do not run 
up in a point on the hindhead as in the black vulture. 
Though ill-favored and bad-smelling when in hand, on 
the wing the turkey-buzzard is one of the most graceful 
of birds, soaring and sailing with a strong and buoyant 
flight on motionless pinions, and affording one of the best 
examples of this kind of flight. It nests on the ground 
or near it in hollow stumps and logs, and lays usually two 
eggs, white or creamy, boldly spotted and blotched with 
shades of rich brown and neutral tints. The young hatch 
clothed with whitish down. This vulture has the trick of 
"playing possum " when captured. The question whether 
it finds its food by scent or sight, or both, is still dis- 
cussed. See cut under Cathartes. 
turkey-call (tfer'ki-kal), n. An instrument pro- 
ducing a sound which resembles the gobbling 
of the turkey-cock, used as a decoy. 
Turkey carpet. See carpet. 
turkey-COCk (ter'ki-kok), . [Orig. Turkey-cock 
or Turkey cock (Turkie-cock, etc.), < Turkey, the 
country so called (see turkey), + cock 1 .] The 
bird now called turkey (including the female); 
properly, the male of the turkey, called the 
gobbler; hence, a person of great personal 
vanity and foolish pride: so called in allusion 
to the strutting of the bird. 
Puppet-like thou dost advaunce thy crest, 
And swell in big lookes like some turtcie-cocke, 
Ready to burst with pride. 
Times' Whistle (E. E. T. S.), p. 87. 
Here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock. 
Shall., Hen. V., v. 1. 16. 
turkey-corn (ter'ki-korn), n. Same as squirrel- 
corn. 
Turkey corn. See maize, 1. 
turkey-fat ore (ter'ki-fat or). A bright orange- 
yellow variety of zinc carbonate (smithsonite), 
colored by cadmium sulphid. It occurs in 
mammillary forms in the zinc region of south- 
western Missouri. [Local.] 
turkey-feather laver (ter'ki-feTH"er la'ver). 
A plant : same as pcacoclfs-tail. 
turkey-gnat (ter'ki-nat), n. A small black fly, 
Simulium meridio- 
nale, which attacks 
poultry in the south- 
ern and western 
United States, par- 
ticularly in the Mis- .^mS/7 ^^ / 
sissippi valley. Com- 
pare cut under Simu- 
lium. 
turkey-gobbler (ter'- 
ki-gob"ler), w. The 
turkey-cock. Seegob-^ 
turkey-grass (ter'ki- 
gras), n. The cleav- 
ers or goose-grass, 
G-alium Aparine. [Lo- 
cal, Eng.] 
Turkey gum. See gum arable, under f/ttm~. 
turkey-hen (ter'ki-hen), n. [Orig. Turkey-lien 
or Turkey lien : see turkey-cock and turkey.] The 
hen or female of the turkey. 
Turkman 
Turkey-hone (tOr'ki-hon), . Same as T/irkey- 
stoitf. '2. 
turkey-leather (ttrTd-lera'to), n. A leather 
prepared by oil-tawing without first removing 
the hair sid'e, the flesh side being blackened in 
the usual way: used for women's boots and 
shoes. 
turkey-louse (ter'ki-lous), n. Goniodessti/lifer, 
a bird-louse or mallophagous insect of the fam- 
ily PliUoptcridir, which infests the domestic 
turkey, having the sides of the abdomen fringed 
with long hairs. 
Turkey myrrh. See myrrh. 
Turkey oak. See oak. 
turkey-pea (tur'ki-pe), n. 1. Same as squirrel- 
corn. A\so wild-turkey pea. 2. The hoary pea, 
Tephrosia Virqiniana. See Teplirosia. [South- 
ern U. S.] 
turkey-pen (ter'ki-pen), n. A pen contrived 
for trapping turkeys in parts of the United 
States where they were abundant. It was simply 
constructed of rails forming four sides and a top, with a 
low entrance at one place to admit the birds, which were 
tolled by sprinkling corn to some distance from the open- 
ing, as well as inside the inclosure. There was no special 
contrivance to prevent exit, as the efficiency of the trap 
depended on the fact that the turkeys, on finding them 
selves shut in, would carry their heads too high to notice 
the place through which they had crept to pick up the 
corn. 
turkey-ppult (ter'ki-polt), n. The pullet or 
young of the turkey. 
T?urkey red. 1. Seerafl. 2. The cotton cloth 
dyed of this color, formerly brought from the 
East, but now made in western Europe and in 
America. Mock Turkey red. See barwood. Tur- 
key red oil See redi. 
Turkey-slate (ter'ki-slat), n. Same as Turkey- 
stone, 2. 
Turkey-Stone (ter'ki-ston), . [Formerly also 
tttrky-stone; < Turkey (see turkey) + stone.] If. 
A turquoise. 
She shows me her ring of a Turky-stone, set with little 
sparks of dyamonds. Pepys, Diary, Feb. 18, 1667-68. 
2. A very fine-grained silicious rock, commonly 
of a yellowish or bluish color. It is used with oil 
for sharpening small cutting-instruments. It is common- 
ly called Turkey oil-stone, as it comes from the interior of 
Asia Minor. All the so-called hones and oil-stones are al- 
most entirely made up of very fine particles of silica, and 
the quality of the article varies with the fineness and 
sharpness of the grain and the compactness of the stone. 
Some varieties of hone and oil-stone are highly valued for 
putting a flue edge on delicate cutting-instruments, and 
bring very high prices. 
turkey-vulture (ter'ki-vul'tur), n. The tur- 
key-buzzard: more fully called red-headed tur- 
key-vulture. 
Turkey wheat. See wheat. 
Turkic (ter'kik), a. Same as Turkish. An- 
throfol. Jour., XIX. 30. [Bare.] 
turkiest, See turquoise. 
turkisH, '' ' [Also torkess; < OF. torquiss, tor- 
quer, turn: see turkeu.] To turn; alter. 
He taketh the same sentence out of Esay (somewhat 
turkised) for his poesie as well as the rest. 
Bp. Bancroft, Survey of Pretended Holy Discipline (1593), 
[p. G. (Dames.) 
turkis 2 (ter'kis), n. Same as turquoise. Ten- 
nyson. 
Turkish (ter'kish), a. and n. [= D. Tiirksch 
= G. Turkisch = Sw. Turkish = Dan. Tyrkisk; 
as Turk* + -i7(l. Cf. Turkeis^.] I. a. Of or 
pertaining to Turkey or the Turks ; character- 
istic of, made in, or derived from Turkey : as, 
Turkish misrule; Turkish rugs Turkish bath. 
See 6a(Ai. Turkish carpet. See carpet. Turkish 
crown, in her. Sameasiwrfom. Turkish manna. Same 
as trehala. Turkish music, music produced entirely 
with Oriental instruments of percussion, like drums, cym- 
bals, bells, etc. Turkish pound. See limi, 2. Turkish 
saddle, tobacco, etc. See the nouns. Turkish sponge, 
the Turkey cup-sponge, Spomjia adriatiea, a bath-sponge 
of line quality. Turkish towel, Turkish toweling, a 
rough towel or toweling-material with a long nap which 
is usually composed of uncut loops. Besides its use for 
the bath, etc., it is often made a background for embroi- 
dery. Turkish Wheat. See wheat. 
II. n. The language of the Turks, a member 
of the Ural-Altaic family of languages, having 
several dialects, of which the literary language 
of the Ottoman Turks is the best-known. It is 
commonly written with the Arabic alphabet. 
Turkishly (ter'kish-li)', adv. In the manner 
of the Turks. Quarterly Rerj. 
Turkishnesst (tor'kish-nes), n. The character 
or condition of being Turkish ; hence, heathen- 
ism; paganism; barbarism. Aselinm, Toxophi- 
lus, i. 
turkie (ter'kl), n. [Also tarkle.] A turtle or 
tortoise. [Prov. Eng. and U. S.] 
Turkman (terk'man), . [< Turk 1 + man. Cf. 
Turkoman.] Same as Turkoman. Byron, The 
Island, ii. 19. 
