270 
THE POULTRY BOOK. 
the Old World. The productions of the New World have not yielded such ready 
obedience to his sway, since only one of its birds has been domesticated, the Turkey ; 
but a like bite, if I mistake not, has attended the origin of this accimsition, which, 
although the breed has not been known to us more than 300 years, is equally 
wrapped in obscurity. ‘ So involved,’ says Mr. Martin, ‘ is the early history of 
the Turkey, and so ignorant the writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 
a 23 pear to have been about it, that they have regarded it as a bird known to the 
ancients, namely the Guinea fowl or Pintado, a mistake which was not cleared 
up until the middle of the eighteenth century.’ 
“ The a 2 )pellation of Turkey, which the bird bears in our country, arose, according 
to Willoughb}^, from a sup 2 )Osition that it came originally from the country so 
called. Mexico was first discovered by Grijalva in 1518. Oviedo speaks of the 
Turkey as a kind of peacock abounding in New Spain, which had already, in 1526, 
been transported in a domestic state to the islands and the Spanish Main, where 
it was kept by the Christian colonists. It is reported to have been introduced into 
England in 1524, and is enumerated as among the dainties of the table in 1541. 
In 1573, it had become the customary Christmas fare of the farmer. 
Every author who has written on the subject, since the days of Linnaeus, has 
considered it to be derived from the well-known wild Turkey of North America ; 
but on account of the great differences which are met with among our domestic 
Turkeys, and the circumstance of the wild Turkeys recently imi^orted from North 
America not readily associating or pairing with them, I have for some years past 
entertained a contrary opinion. 
‘‘ In Canada and the United States the Turkey is partially migratory, visiting 
those countries, during the summer, for the purpose of breeding; and although 
some writers state that it is a native of Mexico, I can hardly think it likely that it 
ranges very far south in the latter country, for from the southern boundary of Canada 
to Mexico is nearly 2,000 miles, and it is unlikely, I think, that a bird of the cold 
regions of Canada should also be indigenous to the hotter country of Mexico, 
whence, and not from North America, the Turkey was originally introduced into 
Europe by the Spaniards, early in the sixteenth century. 
Believing the Mexican to be distinct from the North American species, it 
becomes necessary that one of them should receive a new name ; and a question 
then arises to which of the two should it be given. My opinion is, that it will be 
better to call the i)resent one Mexicana, after the country of which it is a native. 
For size, this new Turkey exceeds that of the largest specimens of the North 
American species ; but it has shorter legs, a considerably larger and more Jbroadly 
expanded tail, conspicuously toned with brown and black, and terminated with 
wdiite; the tail coverts are very profusely developed, largely tipped with white, and 
bounded, posteriorly, with a narrow line of black, their basal portions being rich 
metallic bronze. 
“ The same arrangement of colouring also j)revails on the feathers of the lower 
part of the flanks ; and on the under tail coverts, where it is particularly fine. 
