CHAPTER XXV. 
THE TUBKEY. 
^ I ^HE origin of tlio Turkey of our farm yards is, like that of many other of our 
domestic animals, a matter of very considerable uncertainty. If there is one 
fact more clearly ascertained respecting the 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. 
The different wild species of the genus Meleagris, Imown to naturalists, are only 
three in number : — the Wild American Turkey, common to Canada and the 
United States, M. Americana ; the Mexican species, M, Mexicana ; and the 
Ocellated Turkey of Honduras, M. Ocellata ; and in addition, we have the tame 
bird, M. Gallopavo. 
As the wild American species is so generally regarded as the origin of the 
domestic breed, it is desirable to describe it somewhat in detail ; we therefore quote 
the following from the report of the American Department of Agriculture for 1864, 
in which Mr. Elliot states : — 
When full grown, the male will measure four feet in length and nearly five feet 
in the stretch of its wings. The naked skin of the head and neck is blue, with the 
wattles red, as are also the legs. The feathers of the neck and body generally are 
a coppery bronze, changing in some lights to a greenish or purplish shade, and 
margined with an opaque line of velvet black. The back and rump are also black, 
and tipped with a light chestnut. Near the end is a band of black, broadest on 
the outer feathers, and narrowing as it approaches the central ones. Between the 
bars on the feathers is a confused sprinkling of black. Neither upon the tail nor 
its coverts is there any white, and this is one of the means by which the wild bird 
can always be distinguished from the domesticated. From the centre of the breast 
hangs a long, coarse, hairy tuft, sometimes not found in the other sex. The 
female differs principally from the male in being smaller in size, less brilliant in 
colouring, and in the absence of the spur, and the fleshy process at the base of the 
bill.” 
A well-known sportsman and traveller. Captain Flack, writing in the Field under 
the signature of ‘‘ The Ranger,” gives the following graphic account of the habits 
of this species 
A A 
